A World Bound By Duty
by Mekfal
Summary: Theirs is a world of moments, where an instant decides more than it's possible to comprehend. So Naruto decides to be faster than an instant. A flash of yellow light is emerging, and the world is not ready. For too long the strongest hidden village hasn't shown it's full might. Now Naruto and his team will show the world exactly why Konohagakure was feared in every war.
1. Naruto Uzumaki, the academy graduate

The world shifts, turns, and moves on its own rhythm, and one could do nothing but adapt. Adjust, and change, because if you didn't the world would soon leave you behind.

It only takes a moment to be left behind, only a second to be no more. An unfathomable amount of variables that leads to the exact moment, where you can do nothing but run.

And run you should. Run, and run as fast as you can, as far as you can. And try to outrun the world, because if it catches up to you, you will be left behind.

* * *

A big world, a small village, a smaller child, with the biggest dream. It happens every decade, every century, there appears a person, who will bring a change to the world, make it his, have the world obey him, turn on his whim, adapt to him and his rhythm.

Because if it didn't, the world would be no more.

Once it was a man, a legend, who became only a myth, a story, a god. He was special, special in a way that none ever was, and none ever would be. He brought life, he brought harmony, he brought peace. And as much as he brought, he took away the same.

But this is not a story of this man, not even his child, or his child's child.

This is a story that takes place hundreds of years after Rikodu Sennin.

* * *

A child's mind is a wondrous thing, it should not be fuddled with. It should be left alone, left to explore, discover and understand. For that child might learn more, than we could ever know.

"Chakra?" said a voice, and befuddlement was the nature of this voice. "What can it do?", curiosity, interest, and just a bit of mischievousness.

"It can do anything you can think of, and more than that." answered a voice, older, wiser, calmer.

"Hmm, I don't believe you." said the curious one.

"Oh, but you should. You definitely should" said the wise one.

"Can it make me stronger? smarter? faster? taller? smaller?" asked the curious one.

"It can do all that. Chakra can teach you, you only need to listen. And perhaps, that's the greatest thing it can do." answered the wise one.

A moment of silence, just a second of thought, and an immediate idea.

"Can you teach me?" asked the curious one.

"Chakra will come, you only need to reach out, and from there on, it will teach you more than I ever could." answered the wise one. "Naruto, do you trust me?"

The answer was obvious, but hearing it would have been nice. But was only left with a shy nod.

"Close your eyes." and Naruto did as he was told. "Breathe, until you and your body are left alone, you will understand."

"And now pull, pull on the power, pull on the chakra that exists in you." the wise one stopped only for a moment. "and now, bring it out, let it breathe, let chakra dance across your skin."

And dance it did, Naruto could only watch in amazement as the faded blue light ran on his body, and soon it was gone. He didn't feel any stronger, nor taller or faster, it hadn't talked. It simply was and was not.

"It didn't teach me anything, or at least I don't think so" said Naruto, a bit sad that the chakra had gone.

"It will, once you listen, and you will need to listen, you will need to understand, and you will need to learn." the wise one said, though a bit more serious now. "Chakra shall help you live, it will nurture you, and make you into whatever you dream of, you will only need guidance, as many others before you."

* * *

"You really should look at the graduating class this year."

A large, white haired man stood in a room, defiantly looking at the older shinobi. He crossed his arms, "You said the same a long time ago."

"And was I wrong? Did I mislead you Jiraiya?"

"No you weren't, and you know you didn't." said Jiraiya, still not pleased at all.

"This year is remarkably similar, but also a lot more different."

"And still, why are you telling me all this?" Jiraiya had a lot he could be doing right now, he was merely back in the village for some time, and wasting time near the academy that he loathed, simply was not his ideal way to spend time.

He could've taken a trip to the hot springs. No, he should've taken a trip to the hot spring. Relaxation and entertainment would come easily, he would rest and be on his way to do his job, or was it duty? A requirement maybe. Jiraiya couldn't remember after so long, it had all become one giant memory, everything seemed to flow. Was he becoming complacent, or was it just the nature of who he was becoming.

Who was he really becoming? The answer was buried deep inside his mind. And it seemed that he himself didn't want to seek it out.

Maybe that's the reason that right now he was stuck with his old sensei, looking at bunch of graduates.

And still, looking at this. The academy was still in prime shape, and there certainly was a sense of nostalgia that accompanied it. Some profound sense of his youth was awoken every time he saw the building. His teammates, their training, their bonding, the full trust they had in each other. It all seemed like another world, an alternate history. He didn't like to dwell on the past, but that doesn't mean that he didn't.

The graduating class was in no way unremarkable, heirs and heiresses of all major clans, some impressive civilians that should not really be there, but have managed to graduate simply by hard work. And something else.

Someone else. A blur. A twisting sensation, and the feeling of being sucked out of the world he resided in and being thrown in the past, when he was the man everyone believes him to still be.

Memories long forgotten had flooded his mind, a yellow flash of light, a red flicker of flame, a genius to destroy all geniuses. It all came rushing back, and Jiraiya remembered every detail, every moment that he had spent with the boy that would later become the Yondaime Hokage.

"And, who is that?" Jiraiya asked, a bit jittery, and his eyes followed every movement of his subject.

"Oh, so you've noticed." said Sarutobi, looking all bit the great leader he was, confident and proud. "That, is Naruto, that is the boy, who crushed any and all expectations that I and everyone else had."

The Hokage and the Sannin watched the boy as he trained, or warmed up, Jiraiya honestly didn't know. He ran, jumped, spun, and landed with the grace that not even a chuunin would have. No wasted energy, or none that he could see from the distance.

Jiraiya fixed a hard look at his sensei. "I can't"

"And you won't." said Sarutobi.

That was surprise, for quite some time now, he was sure that his old sensei was trying to get him an apprentice, and while not happy with the idea, the Sannin knew that his opinion wouldn't matter that much.

"But, then why?"

"Why bring you out here when you could be doing something more productive?" Sarutobi expanded on the question. "To help you remember. After all these years, you, my dear student have forgotten a valuable lesson."

Jiraiya said nothing, his concentration had split in half.

"When you were out there, spending money on booze and getting her out of debt, you forgot that the world still moves on its own pace, and you, are being left behind." said Sarutobi, with no ill intent, stating only the fact. "And while you have stopped, others have caught on. Naruto, has not only caught on, he has run forward, he ran away, and left everyone else behind - to watch the dirt he kicked in their way."

"I see." said Jiraiya, finally looking away from the blond boy, who still hadn't finished his exercise.

"No you don't, but you will soon enough."

For how long Jiraiya didn't know, but a deafening silence filled his mind, he couldn't focus on anything in particular, his mind was in a state of mild disarray. He needed to go for a long, long walk.

"I'll be back in six months, Akatsuki has been quiet, and Tsunade hasn't appeared anywhere yet."

Sarutobi took a good look at his student. "Off you go then, I have a class full of graduates to sort in teams."

And Jiraiya was gone, no extravagance, not now.

* * *

Naruto was excited, how could he not be. Today was the day he finally graduated, four years of hard work had paid off, though he had expected no less.

Ever since finding out what chakra was, Naruto was determined to become a shinobi. It was a goal that planted itself in his mind. As if his whole being was centered around becoming as shinobi and serving the village that he came to love. It seemed that everything pointed towards becoming a shinobi. Every time he saw the revered fighters his mind would become entranced, and his thoughts would only be preoccupied with being a shinobi.

Become the greatest there ever was, that was the reason he pushed himself every day and night, reading, running, throwing, it all amounted to this.

He was the top scorer by far, Taijutsu, Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, he had aced all of his exams. He easily passed the writing exam, and had acquired a record of a kind.

The third, _or fourth_ highest scoring totals in the exams. The academy was not so sure, Kakashi Hatake graduated in a time where not only the academy, the whole village, and by extent the whole elemental nations were highly disorganised. Letting a five-year old become a genin would not have been the best decision at the time, but obviously it had paid off. His name was known around the world, and his battle prowess was spoken in hushes.

Nevertheless, Naruto had already put his name on the list. He had dreamed, and thought, and imagined, and expected to end up in that position, but he was aiming higher, he was aiming the be the best, not the third _or fourth._

Still, while he was happy, sitting in the class and waiting for their teacher was slowly getting to his nerves.

Very slowly, but still.

"Hello class."

There he was. Iruka Umino, their teacher for the last four years. His face was beaming with pride, the students he taught had one the biggest potentials in recent years of graduates, and he helped them, introduced them to the world. He was the gateway towards the harsh shinobi life, and he was proud of all his students who had managed to stick out this long, he was happy that they chose and managed to become genin of the village they all served.

"Today, is the day a lot of you have been waiting for, you finally get to graduate and stand beside other genin. You will be the future generation that shall lead Konoha to an age of prosperity." he stopped for a second, letting the words sink into their minds. "But remember, being a shinobi is a dangerous choice, you will witness death, you might be captured, you might be hurt. And in that time of need, it will be your teammates that will help you, save you, and in doing that, risk their own lives. So, learn to appreciate each other, learn to work with each other, for if not your team mates, not many will stand by you."

"The will of fire burns brightly in every single one of you, so go on, become the shinobi you were always meant to be." Iruka pulled out a scroll, and started listing the names of his students and their teams.

Naruto pondered, he knew the team he was supposed to be in. The Hokage had told him only yesterday, and he figured it only a day before that. But now he wondered if the old man had gone out of his way to make him think so.

He wouldn't be surprised at all, Hokage was a good liar, and a better actor.

"Team seven: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto..."

So he hadn't been wrong after all, a heavy assault team, with the potential to be anything else the village needed.

"...Their teacher will be, Hatake Kakashi"

And the Hokage hadn't lied to him, his sensei would be the fourth _or third_ highest scoring graduate, genin only at five, chunin a year later.

This would be interesting.

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha was annoyed, he had been annoyed lots of times, but today was especially annoying.

He was a genin, and now his sensei was late, late and nowhere to be seen. How, just how would he train and improve if his sensei refused to come.

It wasn't all bad really as annoyed he was, he also was relieved. His team mate was good. And it took a lot for him to say that, but he couldn't deny it any more. Naruto was good, and probably the only one in the academy that would not stall his advancement.

The other team mate however, she was less good. Bordering on not competent, he thought. But still, she was chosen to be his team, and Sasuke would not let a girl, a civilian, ruin his goal.

Sasuke would manage what he set out to do all those years ago. And he would not stop until his ambition was fulfilled, and not a lazy sensei, and not even a shy pink-haired girl would slow him down.

He was an Uchiha, and the Uchiha managed with what they had.

And what he had was a girl, who was smart, or at least knowledgeable, he wouldn't argue otherwise. She knew history, theory and everything in between that they taught in the academy, and a bit more. She was good with genjutsu, though she never seemed that motivated to learn.

What he also had was a boy. Naruto was a phenomenon, he imagined Itachi being like him, but better. He was after all the second highest scorer in the academy, and he graduated at an age 3 years younger than Naruto. But even with that, Naruto was scary good. Fast, faster than anyone else in the academy, faster than a lot of shinobi he had seen in the village. . He was strong, not just hard hitting, but durable as well.

Lastly what he had was himself, and he knew himself very well, better than anyone else. Sasuke knew his strengths and weaknesses, and most of all, Sasuke knew his own potential.

He was good at taijutsu, probably his best strength. Ninjutsu came to him easily, fireballs or general techniques, he learnt them all, and executed them just as well. Genjutsu was not perhaps his favourite, but he could detect one, and with his bloodline limit, he would be able to create one easily. But that would have to wait.

* * *

Sakura was having a lovely day, perhaps as lovely as it can be.

She had graduated the academy, not with the perfect scores, but good enough to be placed with the rookie of the year and her crush. And that, she thought was good enough.

Of course, she would not delude herself, so much so to imagine that she would be safe and protected behind her team mates. Sakura knew that she would have to train, and train hard, to not pull her team members down. That realisation had hit her hard, just some twenty minutes ago. When her team was finally announced, she was delighted, but very quickly that delight turned into fear, and finally she had understood her role.

Sakura had a goal, and she would achieve that goal, even if it meant working tirelessly for months or even years. That though surprised her, as for the last couple of years, she hadn't dedicated nearly enough time to being a proper shinobi. Yes, Genjutsu came easily to her, was it because of her chakra control, or her relatively creative way of thinking about many things, she was not sure. But in the end she never tried to expand on it. Never tried to improve herself. And that was what mattered the most.

Though that was the old Sakura, the new Sakura would train, she would work hard.

The new Sakura had listened to Iruka, and had heard what he had to say. Being a shinobi was dangerous, and simply going with the wind would not do her well, if she wanted to survive in the world. She knew how hard it was to survive when you were a shinobi, history had been her forte. Sakura knew that war was always on the horizon, and that danger lurked in every corner.

Of course she knew, she was a shinobi. And all shinobi knew that, even the green, fresh out of the academy ones.

She once again looked over the class. They were the only ones left now, everyone had left with their jounin-sensei some twenty-thirty minutes ago.

Naruto was sitting calmly, looking out of the window. He did seem very focused right now. Though, he always was, she supposed. Focused on everything that happened around them. Focused on his studies, on his training.

Naruto had been no slouch, he had worked hard for as long as she could remember, going faster, hitting stronger, throwing better. He was the epitome of what a shinobi was meant to be.

Sasuke was leaning back on his chair, and he as well, was relaxed. Sasuke was the shinobi that Sakura looked up to. If not for Naruto, Sasuke would be the rookie of the year, and even knowing that, Sasuke held no bad feelings towards their blond team mate. And she admired that.

She allowed herself to relax, as Sasuke was in front of her.

Everything would be great.

Naruto was quite focused still.

* * *

Naruto was confused. Not because of his team, and certainly not because of the numerous glances he noticed from his team mates. No, Naruto was confused because he could sense someone near the academy.

And he was even more confused, because he knew the chakra signature of whoever was there. And perhaps, he was not only confused, but dumbfounded, because Kakashi Hatake no matter how relaxed, should still be able to hide from him.

Even if Naruto was a good sensor, Kakashi was a jounin, and a great one at that. A jounin of his skill would have no problem whatsoever hiding from his senses. And Naruto knew that because he had experienced it with jounins who had skills that wouldn't come close to Kakashi's.

And so Naruto wondered, was this some kind of test, and if so, what were they being tested for?

He spared a quick glance to his team mates, Sasuke, while not showing any great interest or skill,was nevertheless able to sense chakra. Was it his own prowess, or something he inherited from the Uchiha clan, Naruto wasn't sure. Sakura, had never really displayed any sensing abilities, maybe because she never required them, or simply didn't have them, it didn't concern Naruto. Himself and the Uchiha heir should be more than enough for most missions.

If this was a test for sensing, then should he somehow signal their teacher, that he knew what was happening?

Or maybe that would fail them instantly, maybe it was a test for patience, how long could the new genin last before succumbing to the mundane, and giving themselves away.

That certainly would explain some things. Shinobi as a rule were supposed to stay in a single place as long as it was required of them, making no movement or sound. As any extra variables might put the mission in danger.

Shinobi of course, were also supposed to be able to handle every situation, be it with traps, combat or anything else. Maybe their sensei was testing them on their strategy, or planning ability, how well they would be able to do in an unexpected situation.

Naruto was also becoming agitated, he knew that keeping composure was of utmost importance, but come on, even he couldn't sit back and wait, while knowing that their teacher was simply watching from the shadows.

To ease his anxiety, the genin thought about his team.

Sasuke, the Uchiha heir, great Taijutsu ability, very good at Ninjutsu, learning and performing came easily, Genjutsu he was knowledgeable on, although he expected as much, Uchiha without genjutsu was unimaginable. He was calm, unexpectedly so, never rose to provocations, and kept his composure even in quite stressful situations. A great shinobi, and a good teammate.

Sakura, a civilian. Not motivated to be a shinobi, though she did manage to pass the exam with not bad scores, Taijutsu was nothing exceptional, she could hold her own against most of their graduating class. Ninjutsu was not for her. Never had displayed any interest in it, though she could perform the academy techniques well enough. Genjutsu was her strong point, always managing to know when she was in one, and according to teachers, she made some impressive illusions.

For now, Naruto sat back and thought about his situation, he could let his team know that their teacher was waiting for them, or at least observing them.

Well, that was better than anything else had come up with.

* * *

Kakashi was having an interesting day. Mostly because of the team that he was appointed only a week before. He liked observing, looking underneath the underneath, seeing what people would do even before they did it was a point of pride for him.

He watched as his genin quietly shuffled around in their seats, and realised that Naruto had ratted him out.

Though ratting him out was probably the best course of action. Kakashi was ready to sit in the tree for hours upon hours, watching, waiting for his genin to do something before finally introducing himself.

He supposed it as a test of sorts, seeing if they would figure out that he was watching, sense him jumping around the academy, or simply preparing themselves for anything that might come their way.

Kakashi noticed Naruto watching him some time ago, and for couple of minutes, the blond genin would not let him out of senses. Naruto's eyes followed, but everything else stayed in place. No action, no words. Nothing.

He was patient, that much Kakashi realised. And soon he was getting disappointed, that Naruto was not informing his team mates that their sensei, who was late, was observing them, watching their every movement.

Thankfully, Naruto crushed that disappointment. He told his team mates about the situation, and they hadn't burst with anger or disbelief.

Another plus - a shinobi should always expect the unexpected.

Kakashi had left them out of his sight for only six seconds, and of course, that had been just enough for the three genin to make themselves as ready as they could be. Naruto was confident even though he didn't show it easily.

'It will be long before you can hide that from me Naruto.' thought Kakashi. 'Time for introductions I suppose. Let's see how you will deal with this, my cute genin.'

And he vanished.

Naruto expected as much.

What he didn't expect was for the Jounin appear in their room, as if he had been there all this time.

"Well, hello there." said Kakashi in a bemused voice, he noticed Naruto's surprise. "You're team seven? I'm Hatake Kakashi, your sensei." he appeared in front of the door, with the speed that Naruto and Sasuke barely managed to perceive. "Let's meet on the roof shall we?"

And he was gone.

* * *

A/N: I'd like to say, that first of all, thank you for reaching the end of the first chapter of my first published fanfiction. With hopefully many to come, and some interesting ideas thrown in, I hope you will enjoy the story I have planned.

Second of all, I'd like to mention that a part of this fic has been very much inspired by JMenace's brilliant work Don't Blink, and as an homage - the beginning of this chapter is similar to the beginning of his incredible work. If JMenace has any problems with the text that is at the start, I am 100 percent willing to change it up. This will be the only part of this story that will be intentionally reminiscent of any other work published here.


	2. First success

Sakura looked around, wondering if her team mates were as confused as she was, and while she didn't see any surprise on their faces, she knew that they couldn't have expected this kind of introduction.

Moments before she tried to release a genjutsu, thinking that their sensei had casted an illusion on them. But it wasn't the case, he did really just appear in the classroom and disappear just as quickly. He did just tell them to meet on the roof and simply vanished.

She would have to deal with bigger surprises, Sakura supposed. It was common in their line of work.

Without any words, all three of them got up and got up to the roof, where the silver haired jounin was waiting for them. He was leaning on a railing, looking like he had no care in the world whatsoever.

If there is something Kakashi Hatake was good at, it was looking disinterested.

"Well, well, let's introduce ourselves shall we." said Kakashi, still looking out into the village.

The genin gathered round and found nice place to sit just across the jounin, as if he had chosen the exact spot. Sakura thought that he did exactly that, but then again, why would he bother. She found herself looking around the place, it was quite windy and a surprising amount of the village could be seen from the spot.

Kakashi turned to them, and looked at each of the young shinobi in the eye. "Let's start with me. My name is Hatake Kakashi, jounin of the village, and from today on your sensei, I will guide you through our world, teach you what it means to be shinobi, expand your skills and give you enough to survive by yourself, and until you become chuunin, or preferably jounin, you will not be rid of me." One could see the smug, self-satisfied smile appear behind this mask, even though it covered almost half of his face.

The genin all knew that this was simply an icebreaker, a way to ease into working together with their sensei, as they were sure the jounin would have every information needed on them, but nevertheless, they each spoke up and introduced themselves, talking about their likes, dislikes, dreams and ambitions. Nothing of surprise really came up. They had been in the same class for years now.

"Now, I'll be the first one to tell you" said Kakashi, taking on serious tone, his body straightened, his eyes became sharp - almost piercingly so, "This year, the graduates are under larger pressure than what I have seen in a long time, our village has been trying to show its dominance ever since the third shinobi war, and even more so after the Kyuubi attack, and except for couple of special cases" he let the words hang for a second, "We have been unable to bring about shinobi that would strike fear wherever they went, and now it is my duty to raise you to be the shinobi that Konoha needs."

Kakashi looked at all three of them "Remember, other teams might be relaxing, while you will be training, day in and day out, improving yourselves in every aspect of a shinobi. This exact team was chosen by the Hokage for a reason, heavy assault, espionage or scouting, you will need to be able to do everything. But, do not get arrogant, a single moment of relaxation and lack of focus means that all the hard work was for naught. I, and by extent the village, will not tolerate arrogance from young genin. Do not brag, and do not show off, remember, you are the warriors that fight in the shadow and while making yourselves known will be required of you at some point, you should not strive for fame."

Kakashi hadn't raised his voice once, he figured that calm but assertive way of talking would to much more to convince his young genin to actually understand their roles than any kind of shouting or inversely apathy would have done.

He knew what kind of a task was given to him, this team, though rough in the edges, was expected to be the second coming of the sannin, the next legendary shinobi of Konoha. He made a promise and Kakashi would not fail.

He would not fail Konoha.

Their first training was not very active, they mostly spent the morning by getting to know each others exact skill set. Kakashi joined in as well, assigning roles, giving them instructions and getting a good understanding of his teams abilities, more-so than what was mentioned in the report.

The reports given didn't always have the information in full detail, so you couldn't trust them fully. But what the reports did give was a good amount of initial information, which, though basic - was still very important.

Kakashi told his team what to expect from their trainings, and one phrase was ingrained in their head. "Always expect the unexpected" no matter what happens. They were required to keep a cool head and a calm mind. Kakashi outright said that their training would be brutal, it would take place in multiple locations in and around Konoha, so they should not expect the everyday training regime that their classmates would be getting.

* * *

Sakura was not sure how she should feel, it was only hours ago that she made the promise to herself. The promise to become stronger, to become a good shinobi. But now she didn't know if she would be able to do it. She understood the responsibility that she had to bear, but felt like she was not the one for it.

It was overwhelming really, becoming the shinobi to prove Konoha's strength. Once or twice in the talk their sensei had given them her knees almost gave way, was it out of fear or nervousness she wasn't sure, though, it could've been both.

She looked at her team mates, expecting them to be handling this much better. She was surprised to see Naruto look anxious, and though he wasn't one to show "weak" emotions easily, she could see him fidgeting a few times throughout the day. Sasuke wasn't that much better, but he seemed to be more ready to take on the responsibilities. Not surprising, obstacles were a frequent thing in the Uchiha's life.

Sakura did feel better about herself after seeing that her team mates weren't being weirdly calm and accepting of the role given to them. It let her regain some of the confidence that she lost when Kakashi told them about their team.

Their day together came to an end, and Kakashi waved at them, smiling - through his mask - a bit eagerly. And in a blink of an eye the Jounin was gone; she supposed she would have to get used to that. Naruto didn't stay around much longer, disappearing almost as quickly.

Sasuke was still there, walking with her out of the training ground that they occupied for the past few hours.

She almost jumped in surprise, and almost as quickly reprimanded herself for not expecting the unexpected.

Sasuke had put his hand on her shoulder and simply looked in her eyes.

"You shouldn't worry too much, we will manage and become the shinobi Konoha needs, know that Kakashi will teach you whatever he can." Sasuke rarely spoke up, but when he did he always chose the words carefully, always being direct.

Sakura slept easily that day, knowing that her team mate would be supporting her.

* * *

Naruto did everything but sleep that day.

He wasn't sure why all of the information made him anxious, he didn't really understand why the responsibility was only his teams to bear. And also, he wasn't sure that his team would be able to do what was required of them, he himself was worrying about everything, and how would Sasuke and Sakura take it, one was the last Uchiha in Konoha, the other was a simple civilian, they couldn't take that much on themselves.

Naruto thought about it some more, all the while jumping around Konoha, looking for a place of peace. He let his body take him wherever it pleased, he didn't think about it much, until he came upon a place he had not thought about for a long time

"I used to come here a lot" he exclaimed, quietly surprised that his instincts had taken him here.

It was a brilliant view. Seeing the village in all its glory, lit up only by the lamps scattered around. The fair few civilians and even shinobi walking around the narrow streets, going about their life. The view managed to put things in perspective. As it always had, before he forgot all about it.

But now he remembered coming up and sitting on the Yondaime's head, running away from trouble. This place had always connected with him.

Maybe it was watching the village that he would be protecting, or maybe it was to marvel great creation that was the Hokage rock. The faces of the past Hokage's, looking over the village. It had miraculously been left untouched for years, and no scale of a catastrophe had managed to damage the old creation.

And no later the calming peace of mind came, his worries were slowly lessening, maybe his team would manage, maybe they would be the shinobi that they had to be.

Maybe everything would be fine.

For now the only thing he should be worrying about was his own abilities. Becoming a genin meant nothing if he let himself stagnate. He would have to redouble his efforts if he was to become a great shinobi.

He was still full of energy, and sleeping was the last thing on his mind.

* * *

Kakashi was intrigued. When he was first informed that he would be taking on a genin team, the jounin was not sure what to expect. Of course he had guesses, the Uchiha would end up with him no matter what, teaching him Sharingan would be one of the top priorities. That had left the other two spots. And no matter how good his guesses were, trying to predict the Third Hokage was not a task he was yet able to do consistently. But this one time, some decisions had followed the logic that Kakashi himself managed to understand.

Today he introduced himself to the team, got to know them, their abilities and a bit more. He knew that if they all put some work in, they would become splendid shinobi, but that would require full concentration from both parties. Himself and his team, would have to work together towards the goal, or more like the mission that they were given.

Sasuke had been an interesting one. Kakashi fully expected the young Uchiha to be much more apathetic and reserved. But he had surprised him with his attitude. Even in the early stages of them being on the same team, Sasuke was ready to give out a motivating speech to his team mate. The boy had noticed that Sakura was looking quite miserable at the end of the day, and his pride didn't stop him from helping out his team mate.

Sakura was a nice change of pace from the overall gloomy and dark world that they lived in. She still had some naive preconceptions about shinobi, and the kinds of missions they would really be taking, and though she prided herself on the knowledge, she still was hoping it was all quite exaggerated. But still, she seemed motivated enough, and most importantly cheery enough for the team. Someone would have to take that role on.

Naruto was the reason he really decided to work hard on this team. Not because he was a great prodigy, not even because he was their son. But mostly because he saw way too much of his old self in the young genin. He would do everything to make Naruto into something that Kakashi knew he could be. Not a senseless killer with no regards towards his team mates. And definitely not into the person who believes that completing a mission is everything.

He wasn't sure if his initial thought on Naruto were even correct, of course the boy was still quite a bit different from himself, but still, Kakashi would not be able to forgive himself if he put Naruto on the path that would eventually destroy him. It could have been his own past haunting him and his desire for it to not repeat, but whatever it was, he knew that Naruto would have to be different than himself. Kakashi wouldn't forgive himself otherwise.

He went to relax, the next couple of months would at least be interesting.

* * *

Naruto wasn't sure if the Academy had properly prepared him and his peers for the gruesome training that they were going through.

Every day their sensei came up with a new and absolutely devastating methods training. Run around the village until their legs gave in - that was normal by now. Be chased by an unstoppable Jounin who did nothing to spare his genins - to be expected. Go on a wild goose chase in the village with all of its districts for the sole purpose of finding a single stash of scrolls - well of course.

Actually, he was sure that the academy did nothing to prepare them to the brutal training regime. And he didn't know if he should blame his exhaustion on them, or their teacher - who went out of his way to be as unforgiving as possible.

Weeks went by, but their team hadn't really bonded. They wouldn't meet each other outside their training. Of course that could've been attributed to the team being exhausted after every single training, but Naruto knew better. He knew that the team really made no effort in getting to know each other. Not a single meal together, just simple greetings at the start of the day, and a simpler goodbye when they departed.

At the end - the blond didn't think much of it. He wasn't really bothered by the lack of communication, their teamwork was still great, and his skills were steadily improving along with theirs.

Nothing more he could've asked for.

For now Naruto was bothered by something else entirely. Their sensei had amped up their training even more. And now the Team Seven found itself in a multiple-stage obstacle course. Which, by no surprise, was filled with an endless amounts of traps, wildlife, and natural hurdles that needed to be overcome. Only to be finally met by their sensei, who probably was masterfully hiding among the tall, almost never-ending, trees.

"Naruto, come on, Sasuke found a nice place to set up camp for a little while"

"Oh, good. Do we need anything for now? Food, water, or firewood?" asked Naruto, he could sort it out quickly if needed.

"Well, we're not really staying for long, so the firewood is enough, and the site is pretty close to water." said Sakura "But if you get a rabbit or something of sorts.."

Naruto was gone in a second, hunting was not fun, but he could do it swiftly if he moved now. Sakura would be better left back to set up traps, even when staying for a short while, couple of traps were always useful. And Naruto would rather be sure that she did them well and methodically.

Sakura looked at the place where her blond team mate was standing a second ago. She shrugged.

"He can do it alone if he wants." she said, to no one in particular. Sakura couldn't say that she understood their blond team mate. Though, she supposed, it came with being a prodigy, they all were weird and quirky in their own ways. Kakashi came to mind.

Their brutal teacher had more in common with Naruto than anyone else she had met. And it wouldn't have been a surprise if their teacher wasn't so laid back after their exercises. While Naruto vanished, he stayed back and calmly read his book with herself and Sasuke.

Naruto was an enigma, but then again, Sasuke was an enigma, but still, Sasuke had changed somewhat after they became team mates. He actually started showing some emotion. It looked like he took all of the teaching from their sensei to heart, and fully understood the role they would be playing for Konoha.

Not to say that Naruto was irresponsible. That would be the word farthest away from the blond boy that she could imagine. But still, he seemed aloof most of the time when they weren't in a dangerous situation. It was as if Naruto wasn't taking their teams commitment seriously.

In her musings, Sakura found herself back at the place where Sasuke set up camp. He neatly got everything ready for when Naruto brought the rabbit, the boy had already set off the fire, he had arranged all the firewood they would need. Sasuke was nothing if not methodical, everything he did was with purpose.

Or at least it seemed like that to her. Sakura didn't really think that she could fully understand the boys on her team, they were all quite a bit different, while at the same time inexplicably similar to one another.

"Sakura, you should really set up some traps around, even staying here, Kakashi might do something unexpected." said Sasuke, direct as always. "I'll help out if you want, got nothing to do until Naruto comes with the food."

"Uhm, sure. Not sure if the traps we set will catch Kakashi off guard, but still, some protection is always good" said Sakura.

Sasuke thought that Sakura really ought to become more confident, while the traps she set weren't perfect, and weren't the ones to catch a Jounin off guard, it would be more than enough for this occasion.

It was weird, how strangely close he became to his team. Sasuke didn't know if it was because of the gruesome training they went together, or because he felt the eerie sense of peace around them. What he did know however, was that his initial estimations of his team mates were not truly correct. Sakura was not all she seemed, and Naruto was not all he thought he was.

Sakura, he took for a simple civilian with no motivation to become a great kunoichi. And she did honestly exceed his expectations. Her skill with traps, and her actually exceptional chakra control spoke for itself. He still was sure that Sakura could be a Genjutsu master if she wished so, and with a right nudge in teaching, she could become fine kunoichi. What mattered the most, though, was that she was actively trying to work with the team. And that was quite impressive.

Naruto. Sasuke knew that he was quite possibly the best genin in the village right now, even being younger than himself, and actually younger than any other active shinobi, he still exceeded where it mattered. But Naruto was not the one to actively try and become close with his peers, he much preferred to be left to himself and let others approach, rather than initiate contact himself.

His skills couldn't be questioned, and his determination merged with the ability to learn anything quickly made him a great shinobi. But as a person, Naruto was simply indistinguishable from a stranger. Sasuke wagered that he could find out more about any person in a matter of minutes than he learned about Naruto in more than a month.

And Sasuke was getting frustrated. Entrusting your life and security to some one who couldn't bother to tell you something about yourself was getting on his nerves. And even with the amount of patience that was drilled in his head, he felt himself ready to burst.

For now, all he could do was wait to go on a mission, where they would have more time to actually talk about more than the task at hand.

Sasuke took a quick look around, the forest was still hauntingly quiet, even though he knew that there was a an abundance of deadly predators around them. And still, even with the threat of being mauled he felt at peace, as if he could relax. in the tall, almost unending trees, he could find a nice branch or even a good place to relax for a bit.

Of course, he was a shinobi, so relaxing wouldn't to. But it was mighty tempting, even in his house he wasn't truly relaxed, not really. Kakashi made sure to make him ready for everything. So relaxing a bit would be quite... relaxing.

Sasuke was very slowly realising that something was off. But he also thought that relaxing would do him much good.

He was also becoming acutely aware of how much the word relaxing was floating around in his head. Almost as if.

A burst of chakra and a quick shake of his head was all it took for him to come back to his senses. It was a simple genjutsu, simply suggesting an idea to someone and making them more prone to the psychological trick. But Kakashi obviously took into account that he truly hadn't rested for a long time, and put the exact thought that would work the most on him.

It was scary how easily he could have been tricked, and how dangerous a simple genjutsu could be if you didn't pay enough attention.

Sasuke noticed that Naruto brought a rabbit back with him, and it looked like he broke out of a genjutsu as well. He felt the slight burst of chakra that Naruto emitted. And it was quite potent. Sasuke hadn't picked up on how well he could feel Naruto's chakra, as if it was strangely different.

Sakura was also just getting rid of the genjutsu that was put on her, and Sasuke was quite happy that his team all managed to recognise and snap out of the illusion quickly, even if it was a simple one. There was no way of knowing what their enemies would come up with, and being ready for anything was his teams motto.

It was him that spoke up after the ordeal, "What should we expect? Kakashi is nearby but running away shouldn't be impossible." He was only throwing out ideas, running away or staying would be a team decision, even if he would quite like to hide from their jounin-sensei.

"That's exactly what Kakashi is leading us towards" said Naruto, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, and started thinking about their options, "He knows this forest and he already has traps set up all over it, the only advantage we have right now is the traps Sakura set here, if we run even that is lost." Sasuke and Sakura contemplated on what Naruto was implying, it was either fight here. Or do nothing at all.

"Our goal was to engage Kakashi, and right now the best place to do it is here. We have traps and we can pretend to rest by the campfire, Kakashi will not be far away and we might just surprise him if we plan something." Sasuke knew that everything Kakashi did lead up to them being trapped deep in the forest. At this site they were as prepared as they could be. Kakashi wouldn't allow them to plan out the fight. But maybe they could have the element of surprise.

"Naruto, can you sense Kakashi anywhere close to us? And Sakura mind explaining to Naruto where exactly your traps are, we might lure our sensei in somehow." It was interesting how Sasuke managed to become the defacto leader of the team, even though Naruto acted as their tactician.

Naruto mentioned that he could not sense Kakashi, but if their sensei slipped up he would let them know immediately. This didn't come as a surprise to any of them. A good sensor Naruto might be, but Kakashi was a jounin with over a decades worth of experience with him. He would not be easy to track down.

These were the times when Team 7 relied on the skills they had learnt over the month. Listening to every noise, paying attention to every movement, and becoming utterly accustomed to their environment meant that they could detect shinobi even when they were masterfully hiding their chakra. All three of them understood and took to the concept easily and eventually were able to track down even the most elusive wildlife in the lush forests hidden away inside Konohagakure.

A sudden drop of a twig drew the teams attention and in an instant they were prepared for an inevitable fight. A small breeze there, a little movement here meant that the team was now fully alert and anxious. Sakura steeled herself and nodded, as if she was finally ready. She also remembered that a fight with their sensei had never yet gone well, not for a lack of trying. What trap had they not used, what kind of teamwork had they not shown, what tricks had they not utilised. Still their sensei remained basically untouched.

At the moment they were all surrounding the small traps Sakura had laid, making sure to avoid each and every one of them, as they might be crucial in managing to get away from their sensei.

"Did you hear that?" hushed Sasuke.

"Yeah. Was it Kakashi?" asked Sakura. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to know the answer.

"Probably, all the birds have flown away for quite some time, and all the small wildlife has to be a bit more far away. Naruto scared them off."

"So, we all know just about where he is. Should we wait for him to come or do we use our element of surprise and go on the attack? I might manage to lure him back here, but I would need help with that." Said Naruto, he knew that shinobi should be patient and should wait until their enemies make mistakes, but this was as large of a mistake they would get from their sensei. The perfect time to strike would be now.

"We should attack now, if me and Naruto manage to lure him here, Sakura would be left behind to maybe set up one or two more traps which would help us out a lot." Sakura only nodded, she agreed with the boys. And in an instant they were gone, leaving here alone in the small clearing.

Naruto came to a halt on a small branch. "If this works..." he said, ending the sentence with a sigh. He wasn't sure if anything would work.

"Always expect the unexpected right?" replied Sasuke, but then again, even he wasn't quite confident.

Sakura took the matters in her own hands. "Now that they've gone, a couple more traps might help us out a lot." she said to nobody. She was getting her tools out of the small pouch that she carried. It contained a number of shuriken, kunai, shinobi wire, and most importantly seals, all of which were an instrumental part of her traps.

"Well, well, well." an ominous voice came from the forest, "Did they leave you all alone? That was quite irresponsible of them." this time it came from her left, and again from her right. "I will have to reprimand my cute genin for their actions, you should never leave your team mate alone. Let alone someone who works with traps." Sakura was ready for a fight it seemed. She held a kunai in her hand with such confidence that one might think she wasn't a genin at all.

She wanted to speak out, but even knowing that this was a training exercise she still got quite anxious. But in the end she managed to speak out, just before her sensei unknowingly leapt into one of her traps. "I'm sad that you think they would be this irresponsible Kakashi-sensei." And against all the expectations of her teacher, she also leapt forwards.

Kakashi was being attacked by a barrage of mixed signals, and a barrage of kunai and shuriken, but that didn't matter. He wasn't sure where she gained her confidence from. Taking him one-on-one was surely against everything he taught up to now. It took only a moment for his slight confusion to turn into a giant surprise.

His cute little genin actually jumped out from his back, and now all three of them were going for a hit. All the while they knew where the weapons would go, and he would have to dodge them. And from what he noticed of the trajectories of his genin's jumps, they were all covering the possible places he could end up. Clever. But how? that was what he was asking himself now. When had they appeared behind him, and most importantly, how had they gone unnoticed.

Kakashi Hatake wasn't surprised often, but this was a definite exception. He had not expected for his team to manage a strong, calculated blow on him in their first month. Perhaps he underestimated them. But that didn't matter now. He had to find out how they set up this trap. Well, after he got hit in the face, because right now he was getting hit in the face.

The genin of team 7 didn't know what to do after they managed a blow on their sensei. They didn't know if they should celebrate, run around the forest, or simply fall asleep where they were with the happiness of knowing they completed their "mission". Instead of all those options, all three of the genin unknowing of the others decisions decided to be smug.

"I'm not saying that we beat your obstacle course" said Sakura, "But we definitely beat your obstacle course. Or was it a mission? Well it doesn't matter does it" She said with a large happy smile on her face.

Sasuke and Naruto were obviously a bit more reserved than that, being prideful. But even they couldn't hide the smile that crept up on their face. They could finally relax, and be out of this damned forest.

"Well done. I must say, they way you executed you trap was perfect." said Kakashi, even he was smiling, proud of his students. Or maybe coming up with new ways to torture them. One of the two. "But also I have to ask. How did you do it?"

It was Sakura who spoke up. "It was a combined effort of Sasuke's strategy and Naruto's tactics. Sasuke decided that the best way to manage a blow on you would be with the element of surprise, and that we should somehow lure you into here so you would have to avoid the kunai and the shuriken as well as us. That was the plan, and Naruto thought of how to do it." she quieted down, and allowed for the tactician to explain himself.

"Well, the idea was to lure you into here, but we knew that you would never come here if all of us tried to bring you here, and you wouldn't face us all at once, you prefer taking us out one-by-one." that was an observation they had made during their training. Kakashi never attacked multiple people at once, well not without his sharingan at least. "When you broke off that twig it created the perfect chance for me and Sasuke to hide away into the trees while our clones replaced us. It was a risk but we counted on you trying to observe our reaction more than our movement." said Naruto, it was at that moment that everything started off, there was only a moment where they could hide away. And while he was fast enough to only leave a bit of breeze, Sasuke's movement was noticeable.

"Oh, so just before Sakura nodded to herself? I didn't pay attention to that, thought it was just a nervous reaction." That was also a necessary part of the plan, Sakura had to somehow show she understood what they had done, and she simply nodded to herself, which was effective, but a bit obvious.

"Then came the part that we relied on heavily, during our training Sakura shown herself to be an effective ventriloquist, our clones couldn't talk, but we had to somehow make the noises appear, so our clones only moved their mouths, while Sakura impersonated our voices and acted as if we heard you move." That was really the crux of their plan, they had to make it believable that the Sasuke and Naruto standing in the clearance were actually them and not clones of sorts. As Kakashi would undoubtedly notice them after long enough. "By that time we were already hiding in the trees while making no noise, so you couldn't figure out where we were. And we also were sort of hoping that you wouldn't check our chakra, because you would be to preoccupied with Sakura in the clearance." Naruto continued

"The place where our plan could've fallen apart were the traps, thankfully one of the traps were actually triggered, but we also hoped that you wouldn't be able to dodge all of us coming from multiple directions while you were also a bit taken aback by our appearance. That was the gist of it, The plan relied heavily on chance, but we never let Sakura get into a dangerous position and ultimately it worked out."

Kakashi didn't speak for a bit, he was remembering every detail, and even now he wasn't sure if he would've acted any differently, Sasuke's strategy combined with Naruto's tactics were truly effective, and all the while Sakura was there to support them wherever needed, and she always made sure not to get left behind.

"I guess congratulations are in order, my cute genin team managed to land a hit on me. I'm so proud!" said Kakashi with exuberance that he didn't show around them, "you have deserved your rest, so make sure to use it fully. Because I won't be falling into the same trap again."

That was enough for them. The day was a victory they would never forget.

And maybe this victory would be the one that ultimately got the team closer. Maybe this would make Naruto open up a bit more to his team mates, who were desperately waiting for their blond team mate to become someone they could say they know.

But all that lies ahead. For now our three genin would be making the full use of their well deserved rest.

* * *

A/N: And that's that, as you might have seen, the fight scenes while often following the normal route of showing the fight, sometimes have a hidden element to them that you should look out for.

Peace.


	3. An official mission

"The training is going splendidly, you could say that they were exceeding my expectations."

A faint scent of tobacco stuck to the room, a person could tell that the same smoke had been in there for years upon years, it was as much a part of the room as any other thing in it.

"It's good that you seemed to have paid attention to what I said. Konoha has not had a team with the skill set that yours possesses. We more than ever need to show that our strength hasn't faded." said Sarutobi Hiruzen, as he filled his pipe with the finest tobacco in the elemental nations.

"That's all well and understood, but where do you suppose you will assign each of them, after they become chuunin, maybe even jounin, what will be their role? Do you plan to recreate the Sannin, or is it something entirely new" asked Kakashi. He knew that Konoha was in a dire situation, the other nations villages have had no qualms in "showing off" their future shinobi, all of whom were trained to the highest degree their village could muster, and frankly speaking, since Shisui and Itachi, no era-defining shinobi had come out of their proud nation.

"That question I cannot answer, for I simply don't know myself. A bit of old might be just what other Kage's need, fearing the name they could become more restrained. Power and might exists where people believe, truly believe, it does." said the aged Hokage, one could say that he was more relaxed than normal, " The name that the Sannin have acquired over their years, might yet be enough for people to believe in it."

"What about now though, my team, should they go on a mission. I mean, you do know how our latest training session ended." Kakashi was, to say the least, amazed with how brilliantly the tactic worked, the quick thinking of Naruto, planned idea that Sasuke gave, and unprecedented brilliance of ventriloquism by Sakura, was more than he believed was possible for them. But in the end, they managed to do their "mission" and they did it with incredible teamwork.

"Ah, yes. Quite the tactic to think of in a stressed situation, I must admit, I hadn't expected anything of sorts from your team, even if they were great in their classes, the amount of professionalism shown by each of your students is astounding. Before I decide to send them on a mission, how would you say their personal connection was? How close are they to each other, apart from being team mates?" That was his main point of interest now, it would decide if they went on a mission or continued on with increasingly brutal training.

Kakashi could only sigh. "Not brilliant. Don't get me wrong, there is no animosity between them, I'd even say that Sakura and Sasuke have gotten quite close, they've become friends that trust each other. But Naruto." he stopped to organise his thoughts. "He's more closed off than I first expected him to be, It's not that he thinks of himself as above the others, quite the opposite, he admits his own faults and praises others. But he's much, _much_ , more of an introvert than I thought he was. I've never seen him interact with another person by his own will, even when he's forced by others to talk, he manages to escape the conversation.

I honestly do not know what might have caused this. His focus on being a shinobi has to be one of the reasons. Even then, Naruto should not be as cut off from everyone as he is. As strange as it is, I believe him to be too practical for his own good. He thinks that as long as the teamwork doesn't suffer, there is nothing wrong with zero outside communication. It's a problem that's been nagging me for the past month, and somewhat lengthy missions outside the village are the only solutions I've come up with."

Kakashi looked mentally worn after all that was said, he truly wanted to help Naruto, but in this situation, he truly didn't find anything that could help him out. He had to hope that an outside force might help him out.

"I agree, the situation is delicate, but we have no choice - other than doing nothing - and so, I will have a mission ready for you in a couple of days. For now let them rest. Forcing things do not end well in my experience." with the words of Sarutobi, their conversation died out.

* * *

On a warm, sunny day, the market districts of Konoha were as busy as one might imagine. Villagers of all ages going around, popping into the shops, spreading out rumors, talking about the latest news was a common sight.

Not far from the market districts lay the seemingly modest clan compound of Yamanaka family, quite nearby were the clans of Akamichi and Nara. Each one of them stood out in their own way.

One that was very mildly feared by the children of the village, and very highly by the criminals of the nation, was also ironically, the most inviting of the bunch. Being surrounded by home grown, beautifully cared-for flowers was not something you'd expect in a horror book. As one might expect, the appearance of the clans compound was not the reason for fear. It was the members of the said clan. Yamanaka were very famously the most adept psychologists, psychiatrists, and interrogators of the fire nation.

The members of the Yamanaka clan relied on their secret mind related techniques, which were used to gather intelligence, read minds, and interrogate. It was their prowess in these techniques that scared the criminals of their nation. It is said that a Yamanaka can sense nervousness, hear anxiousness, and taste fear. It is also said that a Yamanaka can make you spill your most hidden secrets and make you think it's better that way.

All in all, fearing a Yamanaka might be a wise decision after all. Their close neighbors, the Akamichi, don't get the respect that Yamanaka's do outside of a battlefield. But after the battle is over, there's a permanently etched fear in others. Akamichi do not look like the most threatening sort, and that's mostly because they aren't - until you anger them. An angry Akamichi coming at you has the same result as going into Iwagakure and say you love the 4th Hokage. Though this saying is bit more recent, ones with the same idea have existed for as long as Shinobi have.

And finally the very much feared, and very much respected clan of Nara. Though at a first glance one would overlook them, as the favorite Nara past-time is cloud-watching, and napping. But this clan, some say, have embodied the very soul of being a shinobi for generations. Taking control of the shadows, that do so much to help a shinobi, means that none, is safe, in the light or in the dark, a Nara is as dangerous an opponent as any other. But their prowess doesn't end there.

There is a reason why every single undefeated chief strategist was a Nara. Their brilliant mind for tactics and strategy means that a Nara is as much a danger in the front lines, as they are in the back. Supporting, defending or attacking, a Nara will have a plan thought out in mere moments.

'If you attack a Nara, be sure that he knows everything about how you'll attack and how he will defeat you. _And_ where he is going to have a nap after the battle. Even before he has made a move.'

It is very fortunate for Konoha, that all three children of the three clan's main houses are the same age. As they get to be on the same team, and continue the very much known formation of Ino-Shika-Cho, that their fathers pioneered.

It is also a happy day for the members of team 10, because they get to rest for the next few days. Their training regime had been going quite well, and as a result their teacher allowed them to rest. As to, not overwork the yet green genin.

As is the tradition, Shikamaru Nara was very lazily laying on a field and cloud watching with his close friend and team mate, Choji Akamichi, who also was munching down on snacks. A favorite past-time for the Akamichi clan.

Their team mate though, Ino Yamanaka was semi-busy, working in a flower shop, owned by their clan. And just as she was getting bored, a good friend appeared before her.

"Sakura! How the hell have you been? I haven't seen you in weeks." said Ino, she was quite excited by seeing the pink-haired girl. They had been the best of friend for years, their friendship had survived the many squabbles over the years, some serious, some pitifully trivial.

"Well, you know the training has been super hard. And I haven't had the time even for myself. I'm guessing you're not that much better off though." said Sakura, she could always see when Ino was out of her comfort zone, and it seemed the training she was going through was not as easy as the young Yamanaka thought it would be.

"Oh, god yes, it has been so tiring. Even outside the normal training regime, because of the amount that Shikamaru and Choji would prefer to sit on their asses, we are being overworked simply to get them to a comfortable standard." Ino said as she was twirling some of the flowers in her hand, almost therapeutically. "And besides, we've yet to do a mission that is interesting at all, though I didn't exactly complain for the first few weeks. But it's getting ridiculous now." She suddenly looked right into Sakura's eyes, "I bet you are getting all the exciting missions, what with top students being all together. How's Sasuke by the way?"

Sakura noticed the subtle admiration in her tone when she spoke of her team and Sasuke in particular, though it wasn't anything concrete, that had died off, or at least should have.

"Well, actually we haven't really been doing any missions so far, it was all training for us. Sasuke's all right, we got a bit closer than we were at the academy, though not much. You would think that our team would be the one doing all the exciting stuff, but really it's been pretty boring." Sakura said, but couldn't exactly look Ino in the eye, she wouldn't give up the information that was supposed to be kept for now. She wouldn't show off.

Ino took this information as well as any best friend, and occasionally rival would. She started laughing.

"What? you haven't even done a mission yet? It's been what, a month now? And nothing. Oh this is gold, you're going to have so much fun chasing after raccoons and catching cats. All of us here thought that you got the C maybe even B rank missions, but you haven't completed a single D-rank? Good luck getting a C-rank in about two months Sakura. Maybe you'll catch up to us." Ino couldn't be bothered to stop laughing, it was all in good faith, but really. The theoretically best team in their village didn't even get a D-rank, that was just amazing.

Now, as much as Sakura wanted to throw back some 'fun stories' about their training regime to her best friend, now was not the time. There would be a time when others would get to know what she and her team mates had to do, and she would have her revenge then.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up Ino. Just you wait, our team will show our brilliance."

"Brilliance? Oh, I'm sure you'll catch that cat in a record time" Ino, still laughing, threw back.

"There's no winning with you. Okay, go on tell me how's other things been going, all this kunoichi talk is making me insane."

* * *

The Hokage's office, as usual, was incredibly silent, one would hear a small insect running around the wooden floor. But silence in itself, wasn't always tense, it could be comfortable, relaxing silence, which lends itself to creative thought.

This silence was tense, it was excited, it was uncontrolled silence. It was the sort of deafening silence that one would only hear in a dire situation. It suited today's mood, today's situation, in which the most heavily trained genin team were expected to take a moderately long mission outside of the village border.

"You do not know what I have called you up for, correct?" Asked the aged, but very much so intimidating Third Hokage. The question itself was hypothetical, they in no circumstances would know what the mission would be, but better be safe than sorry.

Following a decisive negative from the team, Hokage stood up and gave the mission details to Kakashi, the team leader.

"Before you read the details, know that every bit of this mission, unless specified, remains classified for the time being, it's crucial that the information does not leak out of this exact office. Any and all additional information provided will only be by my own written and signed letter, sealed with the personal Hokage wax seal." Hiruzen Sarutobi had given this same speech to tens or hundreds of teams before, and he was every bit prepared to do it again. The unusual circumstances of this mission only came from the team assigned to it. A green genin team with no official missions on their record wouldn't not be entrusted with a mission like this, but the time and the team was different.

"The mission will be by our estimates 2 to 3 weeks long, though it certainly can be finished faster, the main mission area will be on the outskirts of the nation. Nearer the border of the Land of river, though not on it. As of now, the mission has no exact ranking, it will be assigned one after the report done by the team leader." The old hokage looked at the team standing before him, and even as he was making his speech, he wasn't exactly sure of the effectiveness that they would provide, he didn't doubt Kakashi's stories, but a sensei would take out some of the negative sides of his team instinctively. But the team was requiring a mission, and this was the one that they would get.

"The details are such, two relatively new ANBU operatives have gone missing during their mission near the borders of the Land of Rivers, their last sighting was in a small peaceful village which has one defining character. The villagers export a special extract found in the trees in and around the settlement. So far there is no suspicion of a crime to suggest that the ANBU operatives have been harmed. Which is why our own special forces are not partaking in this mission. You are to go to the village and start searching information and eventually the two ANBU members who have yet to come in contact with anyone else."

The Hokage looked at Kakashi, and indicated that the silver-haired man may speak to his team now.

"Everyone, grab your own travel documents, and everything that you will require for the mission, be at the village gates in 15 minutes flat." He issued out the order in a calm, authoritative voice, and got ready to leave the office himself.

"Kakashi," the Hokage called him out, "I expect a detailed, very detailed, report when you come back."

With a nod towards his leader, the sensei of team 7 vanished.

* * *

Naruto was the first to arrive at the village gates. Prepared and ready for the mission, he once again looked at the small travel document, which was more like a waiver with two columns going down, one was for entry, the other for departure, it would list the times when a shinobi entered the village and when he left it. It was an important step in village security, which allowed the Hokage to know all of the shinobi available for any time. Though some shinobi, didn't require the travel document, be it because of their freedom of movement, or their rank. But as it stood, all the genin, chuunin, and many jounin were required to have the travel document, at it be signed whenever they left the village.

The young blond didn't have to wait too long for his team mates, in a matter of minutes, one after the other, all 4 of their team were together and ready to leave for the mission. They didn't waste much space, most of the required items were either on them, or concealed within small seals, and if needed bags. Bandages, surplus of weapons, and extra pieces of garment were all that they packed for this mission.

They were all wearing roughly similar, dark grey colours mixed with some blue and green. Neutral, and inoffensive colours were needed when going out for a reconnaissance mission. They learned that in a very humbling lesson, when they were to scout out Kakashi in the vast forest of training ground 42. And their vibrant and often clashing colours didn't help them much in hiding among the foliage. They also learned that truly powerful shinobi could wear those standing out colours, simply because they weren't afraid of the challenge, more, they welcomed it. To show their power and force.

The first steps outside of the village, were odd to say the least. While the environment wasn't any different, the whole idea of going outside those walls which you so often saw in your life was liberating and strange. The young genin soon got over the sensation of walking on land that they haven't yet been on, and continued their relatively brisk pace towards the outskirts of the Land of Fire.

At the end of their day, near midnight, the team decided to set up camp, and regain some of the energy they spent by traversing an unknown environment. They got quite far, and were expected to arrive at the small village sometime in the next two days. But as of now rest was necessary, and by Kakashi's orders, two from the team had to stay up to guard the other two.

Naruto and Sasuke chose to be the first ones on guard duty, as they still had some energy left over which they wanted to spend. Kakashi didn't exactly deter them from doing anything wasteful, as he was quite confident in their safety on these grounds, but still he asked them to be very careful, as bandits and wild animals weren't rare to the lands. Kakashi and Sakura went to sleep while Naruto and Sasuke were just about starting to talk.

"How are you so fast?" Sasuke blurted out during their quite dry conversation. "I understand practice, and hard work, but the way you run, no energy is being wasted. It seems like your body is just tuned for running." And honestly it was bothering him, Sasuke was fast, that was sure, faster than every other genin in his year, faster than many chunin. But not even close to Naruto. The speed that he accumulated was just stupid.

Naruto looked at Sasuke, and he seemed to be staring for some time, perhaps thinking about the issue himself.

"Well, honestly, I don't know, being fast sort of just came about. I was always faster then others, even without training. Maybe it has something to do with the way my body is, connected to my parents possibly. Not that I'd know." He sighed. Now, one thing to know about Naruto, he never sighed. The idea of his parents was still heavy on his heart it seemed.

Naruto continued, "But as fast as I am, your taijutsu seems to be superior, given enough space I'd probably win out, but in tight spaces your style would beat out me, is that more of a Uchiha thing? Considering the sharingan seems very comfortable in small placed, probably more so than large battlefields." He was genuinely interested, the way Sasuke fought was different, most taijutsu experts used their surroundings to their benefit, and more space meant more things to use. But Sasuke seemed more at home where he had small space to work with, possibly because it made his opponent uncomfortable while he himself didn't mind the spatial limitation.

"Uchiha's in general like small spaces more, though there were obvious exceptions, but our skill-set is more accustomed to tight places, starting with Taijutsu, or Ninjutsu, or even Genjutsu, all of the strong sides of our fighting style depend on less outside interference. Great fiery jutsu's work well in small rooms because the heat is much more pronounced, the sharingan is more effective close-up because our reaction time will exceed our opponents. Even Genjutsu. It's easier to apply a believable and powerful illusion in a smaller place with less items rather than a large field. It's more real that way." Sasuke threw a small branch in a camp fire that they had made to keep warm. "But Taijutsu isn't the only thing that's decisive in a fight is it. Ninjutsu for example, our styles differ there. I, because of my clan, have large elemental jutsu's that I use frequently, while you prefer to use more general Ninjutsu, or use it in a way that's entirely unique to you."

"Ninjutsu is really interesting that way. You can use ninjutsu in a way that is unique to you, be it with shape or elemental manipulation, or you could go with the tried and tested clan methods. Both have their uses. Your ninjutsu suits you because it affects an area larger than one you are comfortable in, so it leaves you with less weaknesses, while mine expands on the strengths that I have. Two different ways to go about it. Both equally effective." replied Naruto, who took comfort in looking into the fire.

A brief period of silence followed, while their shinobi talk was very much entertaining for both, they learned much from each other during the month and some weeks they already spent together.

"So do you really not know anything about your parents?" Sasuke didn't know what made him say that. Perhaps it was the want to get a bit close to his team mate, who still very stubbornly refused to be sociable.

"Ah... No, not really. No one has ever told me about them, and the records from the tragedy while, mostly well done, seem to not have any information about my parents. The only thing that I've managed to learn is that Uzumaki is probably not my real last name." said Naruto, and for the first time during the talk he looked up at Sasuke.

"Wait, how did you learn that? That seems important." Sasuke understandably was a bit intrigued by this development, many orphans were given popular last names if theirs wasn't already known, but Uzumaki was fairly rare and historically important last name, so it was all a bit confusing.

"One thing that all Uzumaki, no matter who their other parent, had, was vibrant red hair. It was _the_ defining Uzumaki characteristic, and while I seem to fit all other ideas about the Uzumaki, large chakra, sensing ability, the ability to take a hit. My hair should definitely be red, unless someone with a blond hair of much stronger roots beat the red hair. And who had that I do not know. Blond hair isn't exactly uncommon, but it's not the first thing you think of when imagining a shinobi." Feeling himself going on about a bit of a tangent, Naruto continued on his original point, "So, there are two possibilities, one of my parents are Uzumaki, or Uzumaki was just given to me. If one of my parents were Uzumaki, it's much more likely for them to have been my mother, because most of male Uzumaki's died out during the destruction of Uzushiogakure - the clan's ancestral village - so if my mother was an Uzumaki, then for some reason my real last name has been concealed. If my father was an Uzumaki, then it is my real last name, but that's less likely.

It's all a theory really, but I do have some suspicion that my real last name was hidden for one reason or another. If I am an Uzumaki, especially from my fathers side, then why have I not received anything pertaining to the clan, considering how close our clan was to Konohagakure."

Sasuke sat in silence during the small lecture, he hadn't thought about his team mates ancestry, and didn't know much about the Uzumaki before, other than they were an close to extinct clan. His silence allowed him to think about their situations, he himself was a part of the now basically gone Uchiha clan, while Naruto was part of the gone Uzumaki clan, their places within the world were very similar, while very different.

Sasuke got to have a connection with his clan, and experienced familial love, before it was all taken away from him. While Naruto simply never had any of it to begin with. And he pointed out that as well, he mentioned their odd relation and the painful connection that they now have. In the end, he believed to be closer to Naruto. And Naruto might have been thinking the same.

"Now boys, it's time to rest, you've been up for long enough." A familiar sound of their jounin sensei broke them out of their musing, and they prepared for sleep, they had tired out quite a bit.

* * *

The morning brought with it a sense of peaceful sereneness that Naruto more than welcomed. His conversation with Sasuke yesterday was eye-opening in many ways, most importantly, he found himself actually enjoying the conversation, and wanting to talk more. Even he couldn't stand being asocial for so long with team mates who he entrusted his life with.

They continued their journey, after clearing up the campsite in a way that showed no signs of them ever being there. The walk in the forest was getting easier by the minute, they were getting more accustomed to the wild growths and dense forest. Though they needed a small meal, because ration-bars while, very useful, were to be avoided if an alternative was ever available. And luckily on the way the team noticed the faint sounds of a stream going through the forest. Their survival exercises and chakra-less sensing paying out.

They all got over at the stream, and deciding to use the place for more than just fishing, took of their boots and jumped into the pleasantly cold water barefoot. Even Kakashi joined them up, deciding that a bit of recreational time was important for his team.

Soon enough, the relaxing turned into a splash fight, instigated by none other than Kakashi himself.

"Take this as a dodging exercise, be aware of who is going to attack you and predict it." he explained himself, while gleefully soaking his students in cold stream water.

"Sasuke, that's unfair and you know it!" came a yell, though with weak conviction, from Sakura.

"Just because you're not acrobatic enough to use your feet doesn't mean it's unfair." Was the honest, but amused reply.

"Watch this!" The unexpected phrase from their blonde team mate was enough to alert all of team 7. Naruto very suddenly began running more quickly than he should be allowed in the water, and the quick movements together with great positioning meant that his team was receiving an equivalent of a stream wave rather than a splash.

To say the least, all of team 7 was very much soaked in water, as they all teamed up on the blond in the end, partly because Kakashi believed in everyone sharing the same pain, but mainly because his face mask was now annoyingly wet.

"Okay, settle down everyone. Let's catch some fish and eat on the way, we may have lost some time and we need to make up for it." Kakashi's team was still running around, but the students came to a halt when he spoke out, with Sakura and Sasuke appearing before him, and starting to catch fish.

"Naruto! Where are you? You have to catch the fish as well, doesn't matter that you think you won." Kakashi spoke out again, he didn't see Naruto in the small clearing, and he certainly wasn't in the stream.

Sasuke and Sakura very suddenly became still, and very much alert.

"Naruto! Come out now, we don't have much time."

"Naruto!"

Shortly after that last shout made by Sasuke, Naruto came out of the trees holding an object in his hand.

"Where did you go... Wait, what is that?" Though Kakashi already knew the answer, he still wanted a confirmation.

Naruto turned towards his team and held out the item that he was holding, and gave it to Sasuke and Sakura for them to examine further closely.

"It's an Anbu mask, of a lion?" He wasn't exactly sure of the animals used in Anbu's masks, so he made a guess.

"Close, it's a cat. Either an Anbu operative lost his mask, or left it willingly." Kakashi replied, "that means, that he's either very careless, and lost, or..."

"He's now a missing-nin" Sasuke finished for him.


	4. Unresolved Mystery

The small village of Uken, was nothing exceptional. Little wooden houses and traditional shops were all that the village offered, apart from their, almost family business like operations of extracting then exporting the unique extracts from the tall, alien like trees that surrounded the village.

Those trees, certainly were something to behold, large, giant-like, but quite thin trees that amounted in thousands in a very small area. They went as far as the eye could see, and were beautiful to the eye. Their thin branches almost dancing across each other, weaving in and out of the trees as so you couldn't really know which branch came from which tree. It was entirely foreign, and even to Kakashi, who had seen more than most, was awed at the sight of the work of nature.

It was because of those trees, that the small village, was hidden better than most hidden villages. Most of the people living in the small settlement never got to see much outside of their small living space, and perhaps some neighbouring - though not that close - villages. And they, for the most part seemed very much content with it. They loved their home, and wouldn't give it up for anything.

The team, lead by Kakashi, walked through the village, to find any semblance of leader or a person responsible for others. But it seemed the village didn't have someone who outright dealt with village duties, they all chipped in however they could. So they decided on the second best thing. A small bar in which the Anbu operatives might have rested at and been noticed by others.

As they walked into the bar, the small amount of people that were sitting around the tables inside turned to look at the newcomers, as they were not very common in the small village. The genin sat down at a small table and started looking around, trying to see anything out of the ordinary about the people. Meanwhile, Kakashi went over to the bartender and struck up a conversation with him.

"Cosy little bar you have set up here. You probably know, we're new to the town, just staying for a couple of days actually, what would you recommend to me and my friends here," Kakashi casually pointed at his team, while trying to see anything that might indicate nervousness in the bar-owner.

"Oh.., well, a local favourite is the rice balls - Onigiri - made from all local products I assure you. And you must try the rice wine mixed with the heavenly extract..." He wanted to say his name, and realised that the silver-haired man didn't introduce himself.

"Names' Kakashi, and I would quite like that rice wine, but I think my cute friends would prefer a juice of some kind." He said with a cheeky eye smile. "The heavenly extract I'm guessing is the famous one from your village, from those trees?" Kakashi asked, fishing for some information.

"Yes, yes. The names quite peculiar, it comes from an old local legend. One says that in the olden times, the trees grew so high that they would take you to heaven itself, and as it was the only earthly thing to reach the realm. God himself infused the trees with a heavenly extract that bring about happiness and good fortune." The bar owner finished his tale, and walked into the kitchen after realising that Kakashi wasn't talking any more.

"Did you hear that? Interesting namesake, don't you think?" Kakashi walked over to his genin, who were awaiting their sensei to share some of what they noticed about the village people.

"Really intriguing, and everyone around here really seems to take the name to their hearts. Almost everyone is drinking something infused with that extract, it's kinda weird." Sakura replied, feeling a bit strange that everyone revered their own product so much.

"What do you think, Naruto, Sasuke?" Asked Kakashi, interested in why his students seemed to be spaced out, and looking past him.

"That man knows something," both Naruto and Sasuke answered in unison, though Sasuke continued, "He's been looking at us for as long as we have been here, everyone else just got back to their lives, and he is a local as well."

Naruto decided to chime in, "Plus look at his cup, while he seemed to have ordered the rice wine before we entered, he hasn't drunk a single drop after we did, and his hand is twitching oddly towards the window. And finally his feet are in a really uncomfortable position, but aiming at the door, I think he's going to either run, or calmly walk away soon."

Kakashi didn't look over his shoulder at that moment, as to not scare the man who might have some information. So he simply sat down next to his genin and waited for his order to arrive. Meanwhile he was also observing the situation at the bar, everyone seemed relaxed, and the other person who was sitting next to the man that Naruto and Sasuke mentioned, was enjoying himself as well, it was only that man who seemed nervous about something.

So when the bar-owner came around to put the food on their table, he asked the man who that person might be.

"Oh, him? That's Tenshi, he recently helped out two guys from a big village. I think they wanted some of the heavenly extract. Not sure though, you might want to ask him, he was always around them these past weeks."

Kakashi thanked him, and turned to the meal. The onigiri looked delicious, he would admit, and the wine smelled very nice, and not too strong as well. Him and his genin started to eat, and discuss the various ideas about the mission.

"The most important thing now, is to know if Cat lost his mask in a battle, or carelessly, or else. If we figure that out, then the rest should be a bit more simple." Sasuke spoke out, and Sakura agreed silently, she was quite hungry, and didn't exactly want to speak now.

"Looking at the mask, it didn't seem damaged at all, and unless it has some extra protection with fuinjutsu, then I don't believe that there would have been a battle. And if he simply lost it carelessly, if I saw it in the trees, then he surely would have as well." Naruto added on, thinking about the complicated situation.

"While a fight seems unlikely, don't rule it out. They were Anbu after all, their job is full of battles. And yes, the mask in itself is now the most important thing to figure out, as we don't really have any leads to go on. We should focus on something more substantial right now. These villagers probably know what the operatives were doing up until their disappearance, so make that a priority." Kakashi answered back.

"Guys, this food is delicious, and the bar is so warm." Sakura added, she really wanted to rest now, it had been a long long day yesterday, and they had finally arrived today in the morning,"let's enjoy it for now, please?"

They all agreed that for now, maybe a little bit of time to rest, as it was, would be better.

* * *

Outside of the bar, everyone had left to get to work and they were now crowding the streets. Kakashi and his team were also walking around, checking out some points of interest. For example a fruit stand, which was owned by the person that was looking at them during their meal. Though they decided to leave it for now, as a lot of people were buying, and they didn't want to disrupt the business.

But that didn't mean that they were going to sit out the day, Kakashi gave out orders, to ask around the village, about any sort of presence of people from outside of Land of Fire, or maybe even some foreign shinobi. Naruto and Sakura set out to do the job together, while Sasuke stayed behind with Kakashi. Being paired up would be safer, he said.

They asked about, but none of the villagers were very willing to tell them about anything, pretending to be busy. It was as if the whole village was strangely avoiding them. Naruto and Sakura decided to go to a small square in the centre, and ponder about some of the details that might be important.

"It's weird. I mean, even if they weren't used to strangers, though they partly should be, considering the amount of the extract the sell, it feels like they are purposely hiding something. Or maybe they really don't have any information." Sakura said, she found a small fountain with small fish swimming in it to sit beside.

"It doesn't seem like they don't have information, it's a small village, everyone knows everyone right?" Naruto looked for a confirmation, and got a distracted nod. "So, they would know every outsider to come in, and be at least somewhat interested in them." He laid back on the seat, and looked up high, towards the trees.

"Naruto, do you care about anyone? Not specifically us, but do you have a precious person?" Sakura asked very suddenly, and surprised herself, she wasn't thinking about speaking out loud

Now, Naruto was no stranger to weird questions, but he didn't really know how to talk about this at all. What was even his answer? Did he have someone who he cared about?

"Uhm... I, don't know. I care about you guys, you're the only one that I ever really talk to. But, well. What is a precious person? Do you consider someone as a precious person?" Naruto answered in the only way he knew how, turning the question around.

"Ah, I do actually, my parents for one, and Ino I guess, though she is very annoying sometimes. And Sasuke maybe, though maybe not as much as I really thought, but still. Kakashi sensei as well, and you. My team mates are important to me, and you guys show me how to be strong, and how to not fear everything that is happening. You and Sasuke give me the willpower to become a great kunoichi, and Kakashi-sensei teaches me how to do it. I guess, a precious person is someone who is irreplaceable, someone that none else can be." answered Sakura not daring to look into her team mates eyes. She preferred to watch the trees up high.

"Do you really not have anyone else outside of our team who is close to you? A friend from early childhood? A person you like?" Sakura continued asking questions, she wanted to figure out the enigma of Naruto Uzumaki for once.

"No, not really. I was never close to anyone. The hokage came to see me couple of times when I was little. He taught me about chakra, and inspired me to work towards being a shinobi. I never properly thanked him for that though, but I guess he's a precious person." said Naruto, who barely remembered the event that changed the course of his life. It was time to really thank the Hokage if he was able at some time.

"The hokage? Why would he come round to you? Does he do that with other orphans as well?" as soon as she said the phrase, Sakura regretted ever speaking out. "Sorry, sorry, didn't mean it. I mean, I forgot..."

"Don't worry, I don't care about that really, it's just the way my life was, can't do anything about it now can I?" Naruto chuckled to himself. "And, I never thought about it, really. About the hokage, didn't seem to consider it weird I guess. Maybe he does do it with other orphans as well?" Though he seriously doubted that. The man was busy enough, teaching orphans about chakra seemed a bit of a waste of time.

They both decided it was a good time to end the conversation and started walking round the village, asking people about any outsiders that might have come in.

"Well, yes actually, two guys recently came to town with this weird symbol on a thing on their forehead, they got in a bit of an argument with some drunks I think, and they left couple of days ago actually." The man drew out the symbol on a piece of paper, and handed it to them.

"That's very useful, thank you for the information sir." Sakura answered the man and turned towards Naruto

"That changes up some things doesn't it?"

"Yeah, this got lot more interesting now." He answered, and they went back to meet up with Kakashi to show them their findings.

* * *

"A Sunagakure shinobi was here a couple of days ago? Now, that information, plus the one that we found out about two armed guys coming into the town some time ago, and disappearing the same time when the Sunagakure shinobi left makes this mission very intriguing." Kakashi said to his students.

He and Sasuke went about the village asking people about information, and an old lady seemed very happy to answer some questions. She said that some time ago, maybe a few weeks, couple of armed people came into the town, but they didn't cause any stir, they would walk in and out of the village quite often, until a couple of days ago when they simply disappeared without a trace.

"I think it's time to talk to that man, he might shed some light on the happenings in this village." Kakashi said, and went towards the fruit stand which the man was closing for the day.

"I'm sorry, there will be no more sales today, if you want to say buy anything, come by tomorrow." The man said when he heard Kakashi and the team arriving, though he didn't look up.

"Oh, that won't be a problem, we're not here for the fruit." Kakashi leaned on the fruit stands front. "We want to know about the two people with swords that came round this town some time ago. You wouldn't know anything about them would you?"

The man stopped everything that he was doing and looked straight at Kakashi, "If they got into trouble, it's not my fault okay? I warned them that their idea was stupid." he answered, not as calmly as he would have liked.

"Their idea? What were they planning to do?" It was Sasuke who brought the question, he was really interested in the mission now.

"You don't know? They wanted to create a business selling the extracts, but after they saw how much hard work it required, they decided to rob a guy who was bought that stuff and was planning to sell it. They told me because that man often came to my fruit stand to make a purchase, from the land of the wind he was I think. He often had stray pieces of sand about him. So I told them some of the things I knew about the guy, didn't want to get into trouble with people who wielded swords openly." He answered, really quite nervously.

"Thank you for your information, that's really helpful." Kakashi decided to test his genin, and he walked away.

Naruto almost followed suit, before he and Sasuke stopped themselves at the same time.

"One more question if you don't mind. Why were you looking at us so nervously when we walked into the bar today?" Naruto asked, considering the story, he didn't have anything to be scared of from them.

"Well, you guys were wearing the same forehead thingy as they did, the same symbol and everything. Konohagakure right?" Naruto looked at the man with a strong gaze, and nodded slowly.

"Did they perhaps get in a fight that you might know? Or actually, did they like drinking the rice wine in the bar?" asked Naruto again, interested in making a connection with the stories they were told.

"Yes actually, they bought me some drinks as well, they really drunk a lot, seemed borderline alcoholic if you ask me, but it never seemed to affect them the next day." The man answered, though he didn't really understand the point of the question.

"Thank you so much, that's very useful." said Sasuke and he joined his sensei and Sakura alongside with Naruto.

"Now, were our Anbu operatives trying to rob a businessman and got caught? Or is something more there?" asked Sasuke, he honestly didn't know the answer himself, the fruit stand vendors answers made him more confused than anything else.

* * *

It was getting to be dark on their first day at the village, and though they didn't find out anything else about the mission, Team 7 was confident that they'd manage to return back home quick enough. After all, it was only some guys stealing from a merchant, that shouldn't pose them any problems. At the moment the one thing on their minds was their stay. Where would they sleep? Would they camp out in the open, or would someone take them in.

"Everyone, be ready for a journey in approximately 10 minutes, we are not sleeping tonight." said the leader of the team, who seemed to be delighting in his students astonished faces. And, well, the members of team 7 trained enough with Kakashi that they know not to question any orders coming from their superior.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura didn't have anything that they needed to take with them, so just after washing their faces with water to stay alert, they met up with Kakashi near the bar that they stayed at earlier in the day.

"There is nothing more to be gained in this village for the time being, so we will go out into the woods, try to find more clues, and maybe do some training in the meanwhile. It's time to improve further on some things that you may not be paying enough attention to." Kakashi came out of the bar and addressed his team, staying in the village would truly be useless as of now, and he believed that no matter the circumstances one could always improve themselves. So some training would not be remiss.

The genin didn't object to it at all, in fact, they were quite happy to see some more action and find out more if they could. It would be a useful scouting mission, of sorts. Plus they had a lot of energy left over from basically doing nothing throughout the day, and finally, it would be their first time venturing out in the dark. That was exciting enough for them to all agree at once.

It wasn't far from the village when the tall, unending trees seemed to have ended, and more short and dense trees filled the woods, trees that were quite happy near streams of water. And soon enough, the sounds of rushing water came to ears of the young genin, though it was faint, they certainly noticed it. It, then, wasn't hard to conclude that they were nearing the border of the Land of Rivers, though for what reason they didn't yet know, well, until they came to a stop that is.

"Anyone care to guess why we stopped here? Come on, use your skills." said Kakashi to his team, the reason was not really complex, considering the information they gained in the village.

"Well, it's a good clearing first of all, and second, it's close to the land of the wind? Close to where people, ah, merchants may walk by?" said Naruto after a moment of pondering, it was obvious now. They were going to wait for the merchants to come, and maybe see the shinobi from Sunagakure, if they were dangerous, it would be better handled outside of the village.

"Tick, and tick, well done Naruto. We're going to be training in the meanwhile, but I expect the merchant to be arriving soon enough into town, if he was round just a couple of days ago, he might want some more items now, though he might send someone else to do the job. I expect the Sunagakure shinobi might be the same, their assignment seems to be to ensure the protection of the merchant. Though be warned, for them to come into the Land of Fire, it means that both nations agreed upon the terms of the mission, so don't do anything rash.

Now, as for the training, while you are all proficient with weapons - kunai and shuriken alike - proficiency is not good enough on this team. We need perfection, and that is why I will task you with this. I will in a moment lay out 3 exactly the same 'courses' which will have wooden logs placed at different points. It's the exact replica of Anbu's own training regime, and you will be required to hit them, at the exact point where I scratch out the target. The duration of the throw should be less than a second, and the amount of targets will be 8. I expect you will manage it soon enough."

Oddly enough, two of the three members of the team, had seen, and once practised this exact routine that Kakashi asked them for. Both boys had experienced the same person doing the training, though the perspectives were different.

One was a little child hiding in the woods looking at talented shinobi doing their training, the other was a little brother admiring and looking for his older brother, who to this day, seemed to best him at everything. For both Naruto and Sasuke, the scene played out in their minds, and it was wondrous to replay it back.

It's a great sunny day in Konoha, and it's been some time after he was introduced to chakra and it's abilities. And so Naruto sought out to see shinobi using their chakra to perform incredible feats. Though he hadn't thought that some didn't require chakra to do thing that would amaze most of the population.

He followed a young person who dressed in black, and had just used chakra to improve his speed in a way that Naruto didn't imagine possible. The young person had gone into the woods and promptly disappeared. Though nothing stayed gone for long for Naruto, he always managed to find what he was looking for. And in this case, it was a young shinobi, standing in a clearing with 8 kunai in his hands, and 8 targets spread around the trees.

Sasuke was coming from home, when he had the sudden urge to see his brother, Itachi. Itachi Uchiha, was nothing less than a prodigy, a genius some might say. He held the second highest graduating score, was a chuunin earlier than most people became genin. Itachi Uchiha, was more than anything, his brother, that Sasuke loved dearly. Itachi was always kind and gentle with him. At no point did Itachi ever get angry with him, and he taught him more about being a shinobi and an Uchiha, than anyone else in the world.

Itachi was standing in a clearing with 8 kunai in his hands, Sasuke basically knew what was going to happen, Itachi taught him to do the same with two. Though he hadn't still managed to get the hang of it. Hitting two targets at the same time with one single shot was hard enough, doing it with 8 was really, really difficult.

Itachi shot up, threw the first for in the direction they were supposed to go, the next two went right behind two other kunai, and that wasn't going to end well. Itachi threw the last 2 kunai he held in his hands, and shot at the 2 previous. They hit each other at an incredible speed, and the force made the move faster than the other kunai. And it changed the direction of them. The ending was spectacular. 8 targets, all hit by 8 kunai, in the exact same moment.

The vividness of the memory amazed both of the students, though neither of them knew that they both were experiencing the same thing. Thinking that they both knew more than the others, they decided to let the others know how this could be performed, and the technique that went towards it. Sakura was certainly grateful, while the academy taught to throw two kunai at two different targets, the requirement here was quite a bit more. And even with the training she went through with Kakashi, it wouldn't be an easy task.

The young genin set to work, and soon found out, that Naruto was able to throw the kunai with a scary accuracy, though not as quickly as asked. His every shot was basically going at the dead centre of the scratch, but that wasn't good enough. Meanwhile Sasuke was managing it quite well, he had both the speed and accuracy, though maybe not as lethal as Naruto.

Sakura had learned that there was no real point in trying to catch up with Sasuke and Naruto so quickly, they had taken being a shinobi more seriously earlier than her, and were far more effective as an offensive unit. She knew that even if she could, offence wasn't something that she preferred doing. Supporting, and helping was more along the lines of what she liked. But still, there was a task given to her, and she was doing her best to perform it. Albeit slowly, but more patiently, than her team mates.

Kakashi liked observing his team. It quickly became one of his favourite past-times after deciding to take them on. The talent that they showed was immense. Sakura, who thought of herself as not very good, simply didn't have the perspective that he did. Kakashi knew, that no genin, apart from a couple of the older ones, would manage to beat out Sakura if she was given the time. Naruto and Sasuke were just that ahead of everyone else, that a genin as hard-working as Sakura seemed to pale in comparison. He himself was able to do this exercise when he was about the age of Naruto, though he had the pleasure of training under a person who was known for the incredible speed and accuracy of his kunai throws. A part of a technique that made him feared all around the nations.

It was impressive to see Naruto and Sasuke, two very closely matched genin, take to the exercise so quickly. It meant that the future of Konoha's shinobi was very secure, two powerhouses were being grown. But there was a lot of time to go there, and a lot of things that might just change that fact, though Kakashi preferred not to dwell on those kinds of thoughts. It was a couple of hours before he saw any of them manage something akin to a full finish. Though the accuracy was not as good as he wanted it to be.

Not long after, perhaps some minutes, a thud of 8 kunai going into 8 targets was heard by Kakashi. he quickly went over to his team and checked how they did. It was incredible to see, Naruto and Sasuke, the latter being very close to finishing just minutes ago, now both managed to do it. Naruto's shots seemed that bit closer to the exact centre, but that was negligible enough for Kakashi. Though he knew that the first success didn't mean perfecting the technique. It was a good advancement to it. They would require weeks, if not months of practice to not waste any extra energy performing the exercise, but for now it was good enough for him.

And luckily, the people that they were waiting for, would come by in about half an hour. So their team had enough time to prepare for any unexpected circumstances. Meanwhile, he ordered Sakura to rest, overdoing an exercise resulted in nothing other than tiredness.

It was just as he predicted, that a merchants wagon, with some shinobi were heard walking through near the woods. Kakashi instructed his team to find out anything they could from the position they were occupying.

"Well, first of all, one of the shinobi definitely sensed one of us earlier, he's quite alert and seems to know roughly where we are, or at least which side we are." Naruto said after closing his eyes for a brief moment, his sensing ability showing him the movement of a large man, and his head turning towards their position.

"They also seem to be following only one wagon, as the sound of the tires are not very overpowering, so probably only one merchant with a rider." added Sasuke, using his hearing to discern between the noises.

"Uhm, the shinobi certainly know the route very well, they are not stopping or even slowing down for a moment, from the time we first heard them to now their pace has been quite brisk and constant, indicating that the terrain is known to them." Sakura ended up finishing their thoughts, her observation was certainly true, and Kakashi nodded to her, all of what was said was quite correct. But they had missed out on a crucial detail for now.

The wagon was about to be attacked.

"Wait, there is someone with a weak chakra trail coming towards the wagon." Naruto suddenly spoke out, "And none of the Suna teams even notice him, their sensor isn't paying any attention."

"Ah, Naruto, well done. A group of bandits will very quickly attack the merchant, and the Suna shinobi will certainly be caught out, as they have traversed this path many times, and encountered no conflict, they are becoming less focused. Now we will go on the offensive, but we must show them that Konoha presents no threat to the Suna shinobi, so think, and attack in a way that won't let the Suna shinobi come after you." Added Kakashi, and very, very suddenly vanished.

"He knew about this..." Sakura punched a tree branch, "That's why we came here, he knew about the attack. How the hell did he know?"

"It's not as if it matters right now Sakura. There is a group of bandits or whatever they are about to attack a merchant and a shinobi team who are completely unaware. So let's go." replied Sasuke very quickly, he was getting ready for the fight. Talk with Kakashi would come later.

Naruto was the first to jump out of the trees, just as a bandit was running out of the bush, a kunai very quickly hit him in the hand, forcing him to drop the sword the he was carrying. Naruto jumped down in front of the bandit, quickly pulled out the kunai that was wedged in the opponents hand, and suddenly plunged the blade into his heart. Not even thinking, purely on instinct he jumped further into the trees.

Sasuke and Sakura were quick to follow, though Sakura stayed behind for a moment to throw the traps she was always carrying with herself. Then she joined up with Sasuke and supported him by throwing the kunai and shuriken, and sometimes knocking out some of the bandits that were very quickly approaching them.

Sasuke himself didn't stop, he went further and attacked, in a very tight space between the trees, two bandits came out, armed with various weaponry. They obviously diverted from their plan in pursuit of their attackers.

"A kid? What the fuck are you doing here? Your parents left you?" One of the bandits spat out, expecting a rise from Sasuke. Thinking he had the fight in the bag, the bandit started running towards his opponent.

But he didn't get very far.

Sasuke, didn't just run, he simply appeared in front of the man, with a straight kick to his stomach. He then twisted his body to hit the bandit in the head with his legs. The attack was successful, the man was on the ground in a moment, and Sasuke while still in the air, took out his kunai and threw it straight at the person below and beside him. The bandit that insulted him was dead in an instant. While his partner only got a kunai in his arm.

'Accuracy. Damn.' Sasuke thought, before rushing over to the other bandit while he was still reeling from the pain.

A quick hit to the legs threw the man on his knees, and taking out his small tanto that Sasuke always carried by himself, he slashed the throat of the bandit. Not hearing the cries of a dying man begging for forgiveness.

He then jumped towards Sakura who was fighting a single bandit and was seconds away from overpowering him and knocking him out. Just as Sasuke landed on the ground, Sakuras' trap triggered and shot a shuriken towards the outlaw. And only seconds later he was bleeding all over his body from the damage he sustained.

"Everything okay?" Sasuke checked up on Sakura, who nodded affirmative, so they decided to split up again, Sakura would go to the Sunagakure shinobi, and explain the situation, which they certainly would have a guess about already. If she was in any danger, a quick scream would bring both of her team members in an instant. Sasuke wasn't planing to leave her alone amidst the unfocused Suna shinobi. But he also wanted to see how Naruto was doing.

As Sasuke jumped through the trees he heard the sound of weapons clashing and rushed towards the direction. It was a very small clearing in which Naruto stood alone against 5 bloodied bandits. He seemed to be holding his own well enough, though they weren't as quick as the one's he fought.

Naruto looked towards his opponents and decided to do the thing he does best. Be quick. He took two shuriken and three kunai. Holding one of the kunai in his hand, he threw the rest, and even before the fast moving projectiles reached their targets, he appeared behind one of the bandits. He pierced the man's body from behind, the unfortunate bandit fell down in a second. Only after this did the projectiles actually arrive at their intended location. and they, while not fatal, were enough for Naruto to take the bandits by surprise and take them out one by one.

It was only a second between the first person dropping dead, and the second, third and fourth. They all fell almost instantaneously, almost as if they were doing a dance together.

Sasuke noticed that the fifth bandit took out the kunai from his arm, and threw it towards Naruto, who just then took out the fourth person. And time seemed to slow as the kunai sped towards his team mate. He screamed, but knew that his voice wouldn't be registered quickly enough.

"Naruto, behind you!" Sasuke bellowed out, genuinely in worry of his friend.

Naruto, seemingly miraculously, jumped up and backwards in the exact moment that the kunai should've hit him. The projectile wedged itself in the person that Naruto took out mere moments ago. After landing, Naruto in a speed that even Sasuke hadn't seen before, rushed towards the bandit, took out the kunai stuck in his head, and appeared just behind the fifth bandit, and planted the kunai in the spine of his opponent, who didn't even see Naruto avoiding his attack before he was dead.

"He was the one with chakra, recovered more quickly." Naruto said to Sasuke as he jumped towards his team mate. "I wasn't focused enough. That could've ended very badly."

From where Sasuke was standing, all of it seemed perfect down to every motion, you can't think every single scenario through. Though that seemed to be just what Naruto was doing. Their travel back to the Suna shinobi was quick, they, while not hearing any screams from Sakura, were still worried about her safety.

When they arrived at the clearing where the shinobi were standing, a familiar silver-haired shinobi was standing there, smiling with his eyes as he always liked to. That meant that Sakura dealt with the situation diplomatically enough for Kakashi to warrant coming out and hanging around them. It also meant that the Sunagakure shinobi were woefully unprepared for an attack of this kind. A worrying trend for the shinobi from the Land of the Wind.

"Why hide this from us? I'm not going to try to question your orders. But why not let us know?" Sasuke was the one to initiate contact with Kakashi, his question almost accusatory.

"Well. I believed you needed combat experience, and more often than not combat happens suddenly and unexpectedly, so you dealing with what you had was a training exercise of sorts. Did you think that the only training you would be doing would be the kunai throwing? Our team must be much more than that." Kakashi replied back without a second thought. Completely ready for his students questions, probably rehearsed them before. Smug prick.

But, as well as being smug, he was certainly right. Not allowing them in on the information meant that they couldn't lay down traps to avoid fighting. They had to battle to survive, and that taught much more than any exercise could. Sasuke had to admit, that while their teacher might've been bit inconsiderate, he was by no means an idiot. Every risk he took was calculated, and he personally was sure that if anything got tough enough, Kakashi was just round the corner to help out.

Kakashi, meanwhile was paying attention on a completely different thing. The look in two of his students eyes was indicative of a thing happening that was almost a side-mission, though one that he would have preferred avoiding. His students, still under the influence of extreme amount of adrenaline weren't quite processing the fact that they had to take a life. But their eyes were showing a different story. Their subconscious realised what was happening, and their eyes couldn't help but show what their dormant part of the mind was thinking about.

Later in the day they would come to understand everything that happened, and he would have to be there for them. It's a journey of humongous difficulty for a shinobi. Both the teacher and the student, one must learn that killing is a sadly necessary part of their work. The other must rationalise it in a way that isn't disrespectful. It would be a hard night for them, maybe a hard week. But eventually they would slowly get over it, but the moment would always be in their heads, it would flash up and appear at the most vulnerable times. That's something that you don't forget.

Very happily, his third student seemed to have avoided the tragic occurrence, which meant that her team mates would be there for her just as he would be for them. It meant that she wouldn't have to suffer alone, it meant that they would bond closer through a shared experience. While it is hard to find any positives in killing another man, it does bring you closer together, at the very least.

The two teams grouped up to the walk into the village. They would be arriving at around mid-day, which meant plenty of time for rest and more investigative work. The day couldn't be lost. It was crucial for the team to be working a lot now, to take their minds of the carnage that happened.

It wasn't until the late night when the two shinobi teams from two nations spoke again. They had met up at the bar, one that they first arrived at. And also, it seems, one that the Sunagakure shinobi quite liked.

The calm mood, the wooden interior and lovely people singing and occasionally dancing made their evening one for relaxation. They weren't bothered by the mystery. It would be only a matter of time before everything got sorted out, so Team 7 would prefer to rest after a very long day. So during the night the only thing for the genin of team 7 to do, as they weren't drinking - on their leaders orders - was to watch Kakashi Hatake have a drink after drink and not have it affect him in any way. The perplexing fact of his forever soberness was something of a puzzle for Team 7. Whose members took some entertainment out of theorising about his anti-alcohol powers.

The idea that shinobi didn't get drunk got tossed out of the window, simply because the Sunagakure team which were sitting opposite of them, were absolutely - as one would say - hammered. Their drunken state, while not much different from the usual jubilant one they seemed to show, was still obviously not a sober one.

Many ideas were thrown in by Sakura, who preferred on the idea of his mask absorbing all the alcohol. And it was a theory that Sasuke silently agreed with. Kakashi, no matter what he ate or drank, was never seen without his mask. Was it a permanent genjutsu, or incredible sleight of hand, he probably would never know. Sakuras' other ides were bit less realistic, as in the sharingan that didn't absorb into the body meant that other parts that could've been incorporated into the blood stream never were. Or the thought of Kakashi simply not having blood to even contain alcohol.

Even Naruto threw out some comments during the talk, he seemed more relaxed with his team, and him laughing at some of the jokes was very promptly observed and noted by Sakura and Sasuke, who liked this side of their team mate. It would be long - they thought - until Naruto was socially open to them, but for now, even this was enough to make them happy.

To better understand how closed of Naruto was. Sasuke was considered to be incredibly asocial during their academy years, partly because of his character, mostly because of the events that surrounded his life. Naruto meanwhile was never even considered on the spectrum of sociality. He simply existed as a person, but not someone one could talk to. Today, Sasuke on his team is communicative enough for Sakura to not feel lonely, while Naruto is still on the far end of the spectrum of talkativeness.

But amongst all this new found sociality, and their fun theorising - the moment that members of team 7 would remember the most of in the future was what happened during the ending of the Sunagakure team's drinking spree.

"If only we managed to rob that idiot, we wouldn't be spending time here with these idiots," said one of the shinobi; pointing at the many residents of the bar. "No, we'd be somewhere in the Land of Hot Water, enjoying spa's and what not. Damn them."

In most cases, shinobi of different nations don't interfere in each others business. And most of the time, Konoha shinobi would turn a blind eye to the statement. But considering the very peculiar circumstances of the mission they were working on, Kakashi and the rest of team 7 thought it fit to enquire further into the Suna shinobi's statement.

"Rob who, if you don't mind me asking?" said Kakashi, as he turned towards the man that blurted out the line.

"The stupid merchant, who else. The moron is out there getting rich of other people's products, while we waste away on the missions to protect him." said the man without stopping to think.

"I see, it's not easy being a slave to other peoples whims is it? Going outside of the village just to help some rich merchant get more rich without any of money coming back to you? Was anyone else going to rob him with you?" replied Kakashi, as he seemingly took the side of the Suna shinobi. To the eyes of his team his actions were strange at the very least, perhaps he did actually get drunk.

"Yes. God, yes! You understand, the damn merchants get so much money, and hardly any ends up in the pockets of the people defending their lives." said the suna shinobi, his fists contacting the table, though weakly. "We brought in everyone who wanted in on the plan, the fucking fruit stand guy, even offered a piece of the action to other villagers. And finally those damn Anbu. Righteous idiots they were. Fought back against us - trying to stop us from robbing them. And worst of all!" he quieted down suddenly, not wanting to be heard "They succeeded. Morons - the lot of them."

"Ah, unfortunate, but it happens." said Kakashi, and he patted the man's shoulders, just as he turned the man towards him. "One last thing, do you know where the Anbu might be now? You know, maybe we can figure something out with them. The man you're escorting now isn't as experienced as the other merchant is he? So everything would be easier."

"Well, we don't know really. After our scuffle, they sort of disappeared the next day. Though, now that I think about it." He sat down to ponder for a moment, "I did see one of them going off alone, so maybe they had a fight? We haven't seen either of them after he left." He sat up to rejoin his team and continue wallowing in the missed opportunity.

Kakashi returned to his team, thinking about the information he had gathered purely out of chance. He did have an inclination that Sunagakure shinobi were hiding something, but for it to be directly connected to their mission was not expected.

They chose to leave the bar and take a walk outside and talk in the relative quiet of the village. Any chance of the Sunagakure shinobi overhearing was what they wanted to prevent.

"So, our Anbu actually intercepted a robbing and managed to dissuade them of doing something else. If so, and everything went according to plan. Where are they now? Why did one leave before the other?" asked Sasuke, after being informed by Kakashi on everything that he had heard.

Naruto was quick to comment. "We shouldn't forget the fruit stall merchant, he was lying to our faces. And now even the Sunagakure shinobi mentioned him."

"Also, are they going to rob this merchant? Are we going to stop them?" asked Sakura, who was not very excited about the idea of fighting real shinobi, from an allied nation nonetheless.

"Don't worry about that Sakura, as we speak, the information about their previous attempt and possible repeat of it; Is going to be told to a team meant with dealing situations of this kind." said Kakashi, and continued "Our only worry right now should be the location of our Anbu agents and nothing else."

* * *

The morning after was a tense one. Or at least it seemed that way to Sakura.

For her, the beautiful light rays passing through the gigantic trees were more than enough to relax. The faint breeze, and the calm activity of the village brought out a certain mindfulness that she liked.

Same couldn't be said for her two team mates. They seemed the exact opposite of relaxed, it looked like neither of them slept any second last night. Which surprised her, she herself had one the the most blissful sleeps in many years. Perhaps the exhaustion of staying up in a constant movement for multiple days, and they having to battle for your life was enough for her body to decide to sleep more deeply.

So after all that, she was surprised to see her team mates not only restless, but even more closed off than they were before, and as much as she wanted to comfort them. Right now, they were supposed to meet with Kakashi, and go on a journey outside of the village to find their Anbu operatives. And perhaps it would be the last day they spent in the village. So she wanted to make the most of it.

Sakura went around the village just as other people were waking up and getting to work, and she had found a beautiful little shop with a lovely lady who made handmade - well, everything.

The items she got most interested in were mostly jewellery, she sold talismans of sorts. Made from wood of the great big heavenly trees that towered upon the village. The uniqueness of the talismans got to her, and she decided to buy them, take one of them back to Ino, and maybe get some for her team as well.

But right now, as she looked at her team mates, it didn't seem the time to give the gifts she had gotten. Maybe back in Konoha. Not now.

Quite opposite of what one might think, there were absolutely no thoughts going through either Sasuke's or Naruto's heads. Though it can be hard to image, their minds simply absorbed in the places they were walking through and nothing else. They simply were, but not much than that.

"Team, we are to leave town today, and go back to the place where we initially found the mask of Cat. If there are any clues left behind, we will follow up on them." said Kakashi, and promptly got moving.

To leave this village without as much as a goodbye was strange. Even though they didn't much communicate with the locals, there still were people who might be interested in the fact that they were leaving. But, Sakura guessed, it didn't exactly matter to them that much. Their whole lives, people came by and went as quickly. So four more cases of that happening wouldn't be out of the ordinary.

* * *

The river that they now remembered as a distant memory, brought back all the questions that it had created that day. How did an Anbu operative lose his mask, and where was he heading at the time?

Kakashi, looking around the clearing and in the river, and in the trees, decided to venture further into the woods, and perhaps something of note would be found there. He took a look back to his team, Naruto and Sasuke, seemed to slowly becoming more than walking bodies, and Sakura was very eagerly keeping up with him.

As they ran through the forest, Naruto spotted a small shed in a middle of a clearing. It looked to be abandoned, but it lied in the direction that they were heading in, so the team decided to take a look. As they got closer something seemed off to the team. The first thing that Kakashi noticed was the stench. The smell that was so distinct in his head that he could pick it out from various foul-smelling water and earth jutsu's. Some of which make less resistant people vomit on spot.

This stench, was of blood. Of blood and organs. Blood, organs, and burnt flesh. And there was nothing quite like it. Kakashi quickly ordered his team to stay behind as he went to check in the shed.

As Kakashi was making through various bushes that surrounded the shed, his team could no longer see him. And it was couple of minutes after he entered the shed, that Naruto sensed a man rushing towards their direction in a blistering speed.

"Very skilled shinobi approaching from our left." said Naruto, and got ready for anything to come. Without their jounin sensei a fight would be very hard. The man was quick, and they seemed to know the forests as well as one could.

Sakura and Sasuke got ready in a formation, and Sakura instantly laid out some of the traps that she had left over. While Sasuke backed her up.

"He's going to be here in 10, 9, 8..." The seconds ticked slower and slower, until they all uniformly reached zero in their heads.

Naruto took out his kunai, Sasuke got his small tanto ready, and Sakura stayed behind the boys, keeping an eye for the traps.

"Are you members of the Team 7? Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura - and Leader Hatake Kakashi? Where is he?" the man, who was wearing what seemed like a weird combination of the chuunin and jounin jacket asked.

Just as the man appeared Naruto was ready to strike, and even as the man spoke out he was ready to stand his ground. Turning towards his team mates, they briefly exchanged reserved nods, and turned back towards the man.

"Yes, we are Team 7, sent to a special mission ordered personally by the Hokage with no active rank. Our team leader is in a small shed trying to gain information regarding our mission. Who are you?" said Sasuke.

"I see, very good." The man breathed out a sigh, "I thought that my searching ability got worse all of a sudden. You guys are hard to track." he laughed all of a sudden. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all noticed the man had two red fangs going down his cheek, he was part of Inuzuka clan, they after all were known trackers. "Can you imagine, three green genin managing to hide from me? Hahah." He took a quick look at the three genin he was talking about and then spoke out again.

"Well, I'm a Special Jounin who's main speciality is tracking, and I was sent by the Hokage himself to give this message to your team leader. The message has a special seal on itself, you might already know what it stands for, and if you do, then you also know that you are not allowed to open it, only the man it is directed to is permitted to break the seal."

"That letter might just be directed towards me right?" said Kakashi, who very unexpectedly popped into view, none of the 4 shinobi there could even sense him coming back. "Also, Naruto! Catch this."

Kakashi threw a small object that sailed through the air seemingly in slow-motion. And then he turned back to the Inuzuka, in order to receive his letter and end the poor man's mission. His team was truly hard to track, doubly so if you underestimated them as you would simple green genin.

Naruto took the item and no longer than a second after he looked at it, his face contorted into one of shock. It was an Anbu mask, but this one, unlike the last one they found, was covered in blood, dust, and was partly burned. But the animal painted on it was quite obvious at the first sight. What became of the owner of this mask was a question that he - after looking at Kakashi and more importantly, smelling him - didn't need answered right away.

He passed the mask onto Sasuke, who then shared it with Sakura. They both were quite stunned, out of all the things they were expecting to find in their search. A bloodied, burned mask of an Anbu operative was not something at the top of their list.

Who could do this to someone who was supposed to be the elite of the elite. Who was supposed to be the special force that Konoha relied on in time of need? They concluded that, while the mission seemed over, they left it with more questions than they had when they started it.

"Everyone, our dear friend has left to go back to Konoha, the letter states that we do not continue the mission and go back to Konoha, and it specifically says to avoid anything that might lead on to the whereabouts of the Anbu operatives. But it seems, the letter was too late. The mission is over. Two Anbu operatives, after disrupting a robbing attempt, started to come back to Konoha, wherein they were intercepted by outside forces and seemingly tortured, or at the very least murdered here. Cat and Raccoon masks that we have found is enough to end the mission. We are going back." said Kakashi, he wasn't very happy with how the mission turned out, there was a lot not said between the lines of the Hokage's letter. And he was sure his team wanted more closure, but right now it was as close as they were going to get.

The things he'd seen inside the shed indicated more than simply a murder gone wrong. It was pre-meditated, even ritualistic. The poor man's blood was everywhere inside. And some of it was spread out in a specific manner. He suspected there to be much more going on. Killing an Anbu operative is hard enough in itself, getting rid of two, while destroying one's body in a ritualistic manner. That was almost unseen.

The team stood there for some time, not quite believing that after everything, the ending of their mission would be a letter saying for them to stand down. But, as Kakashi said, there was nothing more to do if Hokage himself said so. So, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all went back to Konoha, with a lingering thought that this mission would come up again in their lives. Perhaps multiple times, and then, when they were strong enough, they would finish the mission. Avenge the Anbu shinobi.


End file.
